In November of last year, we reported that Jeffrey Tambor’s assistant Van Barnes accused him of making lewd comments, groping her, and subsequently threatening to sue her if she spoke up. These were claims that, at the time, Tambor denied but ultimately lead to his dismissal from the critically-acclaimed hit Amazon series “Transparent.”
When these allegations arose, Tambor had already wrapped on Season 5 of “Arrested Development” and Mitchell Hurwitz, the show’s creator, and the cast members expressed support for Tambor. Now, however, Jessica Walter shares her experiences stating that he yelled at her on the set of “Arrested Development.”
The allegations that Tambor is facing were brought up in an interview with the New York Times, in which the Times sat down with the cast of “Arrested Development,” including Tambor. When the allegations arose in conversation, Walter said, through tears, “Let me just say one thing that I just realized in this conversation. 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 apologize. I have to let it go.”
She continued, ” In … 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.”
This incident is something that Tambor previously recounted in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. The interview states that he later “profusely apologized” to the actress. However, when THR reached out to Walter, a representative said that she didn’t want to talk about Tambor.
For many, Walter acknowledging and confronting the way Tambor behaved on set is not a surprise. The surprise came when it seemed the males of the cast were shaming her for sharing her experiences. When the elephant in the room was brought up, Tony Hale stated “we’ve all had moments,” to which Walter replied, “But not like that, not like that. That was bad.”
Jason Bateman seemed, despite saying it wasn’t his intention, to belittle Walter. Following Hale’s comment, Bateman stated, “Exactly. Again, there is context. What we do for a living is not normal, and therefore the process is not normal sometimes, and to expect it to be normal is to not understand what happens on set. Again, not to excuse it, Alia, but to be surprised by people having a wobbly route to their goal, their process — it’s very rarely predictable. All I can say, personally, is I have never learned more from an actor that I’ve worked with than Jeffrey Tambor. And I consider him one of my favorite, most valued people in my life.”
Needless to say, the Internet wasn’t pleased with Hale and Bateman’s response. Rightfully so, considering the male members of the cast were acting as the very thing the #MeToo movement rails against—men excusing the behavior of one of “their own” whilst talking over and trivializing the few women present, one of whom was a victim.
To clarify, interviewer Sopan Deb asked, “I’ll be the first to admit that I have no idea what it’s like to be on a set. I’ve never been on one. But it seems like Jason is saying that this is part of the process. But that’s not what you’re saying, Jessica.” Which Walter confirmed.
However, despite being belittled and being on the receiving end of one of Tambor’s outbursts, when asked if she would have reservations about working with him again, Walter responded saying that she would work with him again:
“Of course not. No. I’ve just given it up. And you know, there’s something really, really freeing about that now. I realize that. I don’t want to walk around with anger. I respect him as an actor. We’ve known each other for years and years and years. No, no, no, no. Of course, I would work with him again in a heartbeat.”
Despite being dropped from the Amazon series, Tambor will appear in his role in the Bluth family at the center of Netflix’s “Arrested Development” for its upcoming 5th season on May 29, 2018.