Rashida Jones reveals she left Toy Story 4 over Pixar’s lack of diverse voices
US actress and writer accuses the studio of having a culture where ‘women and people of colour’ were not treated as equals. On Wednesday, Pixar’s co-founder John Lasseter was accused of sexually harassing staff
Pixar’s track record with racial and gender diversity is drawing new scrutiny after Rashida Jones blamed her departure as Toy Story 4 co-writer on a lack of minority and female representation at the animation studio.
“There is so much talent at Pixar and we remain enormous fans of their films,” Jones and Will McCormack wrote in a statement. “However, it is also a culture where women and people of colour do not have an equal creative voice.”
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In the letter, the writing partners note how only one of Pixar’s 20 films was co-directed by a woman (Brave) and one other was directed by a person of colour ( The Good Dinosaur ).
The studio wasn’t so different when Brenda Chapman was announced as the company’s first female director in September 2010.
At the end of the Oscar-winning 2012 film Brave, Chapman is one of two people credited as director. But Chapman – who also wrote and conceived the flick – was removed from the film midway through production and replaced with Mark Andrews, who previously worked with Pixar on Ratatouille and The Incredibles.
