Emma Thompson wrote letter to Skydance explaining her refusal to work with John Lasseter

Emma Thompson has questions about Skydance Animation’s recent hire of John Lasseter. Formerly the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation, Lasseter stepped down last year after several allegations of misconduct. It didn’t take him long to find a new job — Skydance announced in January that they were hiring him to head their animation division. But Thompson, who was supposed to have a voice role in the upcoming Skydance animated film Luck, isn’t having it. After it was reported last week that she would be withdrawing from Luck over Lasseter’s hire, Thompson released a letter she wrote to Skydance explaining her reasoning.

“It feels very odd to me that you and your company would consider hiring someone with Mr. Lasseter’s pattern of misconduct given the present climate in which people with the kind of power that you have can reasonably be expected to step up to the plate,” Thompson wrote in the letter, which she shared with the Los Angeles Times.

When reached by EW, Skydance had no comment on this story.

Thompson’s letter questions the unequal power dynamic between Lasseter and the many Skydance staffers he’s now being placed in charge of: “If John Lasseter started his own company, then every employee would have been given the opportunity to choose whether or not to give him a second chance. But any Skydance employees who don’t want to give him a second chance have to stay and be uncomfortable or lose their jobs. Shouldn’t it be John Lasseter who has to lose HIS job if the employees don’t want to give him a second chance?”

In the letter, she also states her respect for Luck director Alessandro Carloni. The movie is set to portray a battle between two organizations representing good luck and bad luck; Thompson would have been the head of “good luck.” But, Thompson, wrote, “I can only do what feels right during these difficult times of transition and collective consciousness raising.”

Read Thompson’s full letter at the Los Angeles Times.

Related content:

• Ousted Pixar head John Lasseter hired to lead Skydance Animation
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• John Lasseter to leave Disney and Pixar at the end of the year