‘Arrested Development’ fans have been voicing their disappointment with the show’s male cast members on social media, after they gave a group interview addressing Jeffrey Tambor’s behaviour on set.
Earlier this year, Tambor announced he would not be returning to ‘Transparent’, after facing allegations of sexual harassment on set, and recently revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he’d had a “blow-up” at ‘Arrested Development’ co-star Jessica Walter while filming the most recent series.
This was brought up during a group interview with the New York Times, in which the show’s male stars jumped to Tambor’s defence, while a tearful Walter was left to share her side of the story.
As soon as the issue was brought up, Jason Bateman said he would not do another series of ‘Arrested Development’ were Tambor not to be brought back, saying of the on-set outburst: “This is a family and families, you know, have love, laughter, arguments… not to belittle it, but a lot of stuff happens in 15 years.
“It’s a very amorphous process, this sort of bullshit that we do, you know, making up fake life. It’s a weird thing, and it is a breeding ground for atypical behavior and certain people have certain processes.”
At that point, an emotional Walter interjected: “I have to let go of being angry at him. He never crossed the line on our show, with any, you know, sexual whatever. Verbally, yes, he harassed me, but he did apologise. I have to let it go.
“But it’s hard because honestly — Jason says this happens all the time. In like almost 60 years of working, I’ve never had anybody yell at me like that on a set. And it’s hard to deal with, but I’m over it now. I just let it go right here, for The New York Times.”
Her co-stars David Cross and Tony Hale continued to justify and explain Tambor’s behaviour, with Bateman saying to his on-screen mother: “I didn’t mean to speak for you. That was part of [Tambor’s] process of being as contrite and as transparent as he felt like he could and should be, and wanted to at the time.
Fans of ‘Arrested Development’ have been expressing their disappointment in the way the show’s male stars handled the interview since its publication, with many voicing their issues on Twitter:
Jessica Walter has played Lucille Bluth in all four seasons of ‘Arrested Development’, since its inception in 2003.
All of the show’s main cast will return for its fifth series, the first eight episodes of which will begin streaming on Netflix on 29 May. The remaining eight episodes will debut later this year.
Read the cast’s full interview in the New York Times here.