The creators of Stranger Things have apologised after a female crew member posted allegations about verbal harassment on set.
On International Women’s Day, Stranger Things grip Peyton Brown posted on Instagram that she had witnessed “two men in high positions of power … seek out and verbally abuse multiple women.”
While she didn’t name creators Matt and Ross Duffer by name, she is credited as being a member of the camera department for nine episodes on IMDb, and confirmed she was referring to them in a (since-deleted) comment.
“I promised myself that if I were ever in a situation to say something that I would,” she continued. “I have 11.5 thousand followers who can hear me say this, TIME IS UP.”
According to UPROXX, people began to comment on her post with their own allegations against the Duffer brothers from set, at which point Brown deleted her post and reposted it again with the comment feature turned off.
“Women in the film industry are POWERFUL,” she continued. “We will rise and we will scream from mountain tops in support of each other and I will not contribute my time, efforts, and talent to such abusive people. There are too many amazing and highly respected men in respective positions of power that I have had the utmost pleasure of working beside. Those are the people I want to surround myself with. Those are the projects I want to be a part of. This industry is no longer led by a “few good men,” but instead by an OCEAN of ASTOUNDING WOMEN. Enough is enough. For my sisters- Time is up.”
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Netflix says they looked into the allegations and “found no wrongdoing”, but the Duffer brothers have issued a joint apology for instances of “tempers [being] occasionally frayed.”
They said:
“We are deeply upset to learn that someone felt uncomfortable on our set. Due to the high-stress nature of production, tempers occasionally get frayed, and for that, we apologise. However, we think it is important not to mischaracterise our set, where we believe strongly in treating everyone fairly regardless of gender, orientation, race, religion, or anything else. We remain totally committed to providing a safe and collaborative working environment for everyone on our productions.”
However, another woman has come forward to say that she was one of the women Brown was referring to, and that the allegations are absolutely true.
“It was very real not only to me, but other women on the set that also want to share their story,” said script supervisor Lori Grabowski, who says she worked on the show for two years and is credited on IMDb as such.
“Peyton Brown witnessed not only my experience, but the similar experiences of others. I don’t know Ms. Brown very well, but what I do know is there is absolutely nothing false about her statement.”
The script supervisor – who is also credited on IMDb as working on Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – promised that there are other women who were also willing to share their experiences on the Stranger Things set.
“I just could not stand by and let Peyton be called a liar, because what she said is unfortunately, very true. I had no interest in sharing my personal story from working on Stranger Things until I saw so many people accusing Ms. Brown of being a liar. I just can’t stay silent.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BgKUehajLgx/?taken-by=lorigrabowski
Neither Netflix nor the Duffer brothers have yet to make an additional statement.
