Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has claimed that he 'screwed-up' when he wrote memos to his workers defending Dave Chappelle's special The Closer and denying claims the show was transphobic.
But Sarandos, 57, also discussed his 'stance' on the special in a Tuesday interview with Variety as he claims it 'hasn't changed,' and resisted calls to pull it from the service.
He made the apology following the controversial memos he wrote to staff claiming that Chappelle's 'content doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm,' with the funnyman insisting that 'gender is a fact' and backing JK Rowling for her views on transgender people.
Sarandos made his remarks on the eve of a planned walkout by transgender Netflix staff and their supporters scheduled for October 20. It is unclear if that walkout will go ahead as planned.
Netflix co-CEO admits that he 'screwed up' in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter after he sent memos to streaming service staff claiming that the content of Dave Chappelle's special The Closer 'doesn’t directly translate to real-world harm.'
Dave Chappelle's special The Closer received controversy from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies for his 'transphobic' comments that were made during the special
In the interview, Sarandos was asked if his attitude on the special changed after the criticism he received for the memos.
'No, my stance hasn’t changed,' he said. 'I can tell you I screwed up those communications in two ways.'
'One of them was, I should have first and foremost acknowledged in those emails that a group of our employees were in pain, and they were really feeling hurt from a business decision that we made.
'And I, instead of acknowledging that first, I went right into some rationales.
'And so first of all, I’d say those emails lacked humanity, in which I like to and I do generally communicate with our teams.'
He also noted that the email's message was 'out of context' and that it was part of an ongoing conversation of the impact that onscreen content can have.
'I 100 percent believe that content on screen can have impact in the real world, positive and negative,' he added.
The interviewer also probed the question on Sarandos' stance on the special, and grilled still wanted to know if it changed since the controversy.
Trans employees and allies with the streaming service planned a walkout on October 20 in response to the memos and the controversial special
'When we think about this challenge we have to entertain the world, part of that challenge means that you’ve got audiences with various taste, various sensibilities, various beliefs.
'You really can’t please everybody or the content would be pretty dull. And we do tell our employees upfront that we are trying to entertain our members, and that some of the content on Netflix you’re not going to like, and so this kind of commitment to artistic expression and free artistic expression is sometimes in conflict with people feeling protected and safe.
'I do think that that’s something that we struggle with all the time when these two values bump up against each other.'
Sarandos was also asked about how he would meet the artistic demands to protestors at the trans walkout.
'Going forward, I want to make sure that everyone understands that we are deeply committed to supporting artistic freedom with the creators who work at Netflix.
'We’re deeply committed to increase representation on screen and behind the camera, and we’ll always learn and improve on how to address these challenges as they arrive.'
Former Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings was fired after he leaked that the company paid $24.1 million for the special
Chappelle's special saw
