Hollywood studios are moving quickly to distance themselves from Louis C.K. one day after a bombshell The New York Times report surfaced allegations from multiple women who accused the comedian of masturbating in front of them without their consent. On Friday, the comedian admitted that the allegations against him are true and issued an apology (see below).
The independent film studio The Orchard said in a statement on Friday that it “will not be moving forward with the release of I Love You, Daddy—the movie that Louis C.K. wrote, directed, and starred in—which was supposed to hit theaters November 17. The studio previously cancelled the movie’s New York premiere event on Thursday in advance of the Times‘ story.
The Orchard paid a reported $5 million to acquire worldwide distribution rights to the film in September after the movie made a well-received debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. (The deal was the largest to come out of that festival this year.) Even before yesterday’s huge allegations, Louis C.K. had been drawing criticism over I Love You, Daddy, which features some questionable content and offensive language, including a storyline where a character’s 17-year-old daughter has a romantic relationship with a 68-year-old man.
Meanwhile, multiple media giants also took a step back from Louis C.K. on Friday. Netflix announced that it will not move forward with a planned stand-up special featuring the comedian, who signed a deal with the streaming service to create two comedy specials earlier this year. The first of those two stand-up specials started streaming on Netflix in April.
“The allegations made by several women in The New York Times about Louis C.K.’s behavior are disturbing,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement provided to Fortune. “Louis’s unprofessional and inappropriate behavior with female colleagues has led us to decide not to produce a second stand-up special, as had been planned.”
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On Friday afternoon, Louis C.K. issued a statement verifying the accounts of five women who accused him of sexual misconduct in The New York Times‘ report. Here is the comedian’s full statement:
I want to address the stories told to the New York Times by five women named Abby, Rebecca, Dana, Julia who felt able to name themselves and one who did not.
These stories are true. At the time, I said to myself that what I did was okay because I never showed a woman my dick without asking first, which is also true. But what I learned later in life, too late, is that when you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.
I have been remorseful of my actions. And I’ve tried to learn from them. And run from them. Now I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions. I learned yesterday the extent to which I left these women who admired me feeling badly about themselves and cautious around other men who would never have put them in that position.
I also took advantage of the fact that I was widely admired in my and their community, which disabled them from sharing their story and brought hardship to them when they tried because people who look up to me didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t think that I was doing any of that because my position allowed me not to think about it.
There is nothing about this that I forgive myself for. And I have to reconcile it with who I am. Which is nothing compared to the task I left them with.I wish I had reacted to their admiration of me by being a good example to them as a man and given them some guidance as a comedian, including because I admired their work.
The hardest regret to live with is what you’ve done to hurt someone else. And I can hardly wrap my head around the scope of hurt I brought on them. I’d be remiss to exclude the hurt that I’ve brought on people who I work with and have worked with who’s professional and personal lives have been impacted by all of this, including projects currently in production: the cast and crew of Better Things, Baskets, The Cops, One Mississippi, and I Love You Daddy. I deeply regret that this has brought negative attention to my manager Dave Becky who only tried to mediate a situation that I caused. I’ve brought anguish and hardship to the people at FX who have given me so much The Orchard who took a chance on my movie. and every other entity that has bet on me through the years.
I’ve brought pain to my family, my friends, my children and their mother.I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen.
Thank you for reading.
Time Warner’s HBO said it is removing the comedian from its lineup of performers for Jon Stewart’s annual fundraiser Night of Too Many Stars: America Unites for Autism when it airs on the cable network later this month, and HBO also said it is “removing Louis C.K.’s past projects from its On Demand services.”
And 21st Century Fox’s FX Networks, which airs the comedian’s comedy series Louie (along with projects Louis C.K. executive produces, like Better Things and Baskets) said in a statement on Thursday that the network is “obviously very troubled by the allegations” against the comedian and that “the matter is currently under review.”
