Let’s try to do this in chronological order. Max Landis is the son of famed director/writer John Landis, and Max Landis has written the screenplays for films like American Ultra, Victor Frankenstein, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and currently, the Christmas bomb Bright. He was promoting Bright when he sat down for an online interview with Shelby Sells. The interview went over so badly that the site actually pulled it, but not before the most offensive passages were copied. You can see Jezebel’s coverage here. Update: I thought this interview was new but it was not, it’s from 2013 – the quotes started making the rounds again last week because of the new allegations against Landis.) Here are some of the most ridiculous quotes:
What it’s like being a successful guy in Hollywood: “… the one thing that’s changed is certain chicks, which only started happening very recently, when they find out i’m a director, will open up a lot quicker….[opening up] everything – their legs, their personality. they’ll start crying to you in an instant….because they’re trying to leave an impression.
Whether those “chicks” leave an impression: “Yea, but it’s people doing a bad job at leaving a good impression. for example, extras on my set would just throw it at me hard in a way that i’ve never experienced. i mean everyone’s had that thing where you’re like making eye contact with someone at a party and you it’s on, but this was different than that. this was chicks coming up to me and being like ‘what’re you doing at lunch? i’ll come to your trailer!’ and i was like ‘i don’t know who the f–k you are!’ my experience of chicks throwing themselves at you like that – they’re always f–king crazy. no chick worth hooking up with is going to throw it at you because it means they’re crazy.
Women throwing themselves at him: “I’m a tiny, tiny bit successful, but in the scale of things you’re gonna f–k me for no reason? i don’t see it. i’m not on that level. i’m not a rockstar – i’m not in a band, you’re not going to be in my video. the only thing you could get from f–king me is getting to f–k me, and if so, lucky you. i guarantee that’s not what any of these chicks who just throw it at me really want. granted they’ll have a wonderful time, but it’s weird. being a single guy in LA is fun as f–k and i love it. the fact that everyone here is so good-looking is intense and good and rewarding. something about everyone around you being a little bit better looking, it puts you in a good mood. i don’t feel bad or superficial for saying that. i’m also attracted to ambition and there’s a lot of that out here. but yea being a single guy in LA is great. sorry it took me so long to answer that question.
He cheated on a girlfriend and gave her “a crippling social anxiety, self-loathing, body dismorphia, eating disorder to.” “I mean you can’t really give someone any of these things, but the seeds of these things were there inside of her. we were in such a sort of unfair, f–ked up relationship – not the kind where there’s a lot of yelling and screaming – the actual relationship was very nice and loving, but i was so fickle about her body. i’m not shy, i would just blurt out shit all the time. she ended up completely changing how she dressed and how she looked for me. that chick will never talk to me again.
So everyone was like “wow, so Max Landis is a terrible parody of a typical Hollywood douchebag, huh?” There were wide swaths of that interview which were so painful to read, like a gross guy who was trying to convince his bros that he was the coolest guy and “chicks” throw themselves at him all the time, except that when he actually got a for-real girlfriend, he was an emotionally abusive, negging bastard to her. People were like “he’s terrible.” Anyway, this old interview made the rounds again because a few women started sharing their #MeToo stories about Max Landis. According to several women in the Hollywood/gaming/wrestling community, Max Landis is well known for being a douchebag, a harasser and possibly a sexual abuser – go here to read more about that. Yep. I believe the women.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I am not surprised. He’s the one who started the stink about Rey from Star Wars being a Mary Sue, and he has gone after women as part of GamerGate.
Bright sucked. There are so many amazing urban fantasy novels out there but they’re all woman-centered, so I guess that was too “chick-lit” for this douchebag.
Oh, was he that guy? What a tool. I remember thinking at the time that if Rey was some kind of fulfillment character, then about damn time. Men have had that market cornered for ages with, like, every other hero ever.
I would have loved to see The Hollows done. Or Anita Blake minus some of the more extreme stuff. Or another Dresden files, even. Or based on Patricia Briggs witches and werewolves, or any of the other and better IP.
He did a reverse Erickson and poorly. Thinking he could reverse engineer a story from a tabletop, rather than developing the background to an extent he could produce both novels and boardgames.
Richly deserved, petty neg: get those dumbo ears pinned guy!
RIght?? Like any “chick” would even take a second look at this dork if his last name wasn’t Landis…
A Beta if I ever saw one.
I hate the term Mary Sue. When it’s a male character, no one blinks an eye. When it’s a girl, she’s a Mary Sue. Rey was literally the girl version of Luke Skywalker and no one bats an eye about him.
She was as powerful (without training) as Kylo was with a lifetime of training. She is a Mary Sue.
She is not Luke. Luke trained and failed and grew as a character. Rey just figured out the force on her own.
I enjoy Daisy Ridley’s performance in TLJ but her character is good at everything instantly.
@DangerMaus
Rey also had a lot of training in her lifetime of defending herself in Jakku. The illustrated books that go with the movies go deeper into this. And Kylo Ren doesn’t have a lifetime at all. Part of his trainjng failure is he started too old, the Jedi take padawans very young typically. And he’s a terrible fighter besides. They’re actually well matched.
Don’t let the fanboys fool you, they’re not that smart.
Nah, she wasn’t stronger than Kylo in TFA. He was badly injured. And he wasn’t trying to defeat or kill her but rather convince her to be his student. She wasn’t stronger than him in TLJ either – he killed more guards in the big fight scene and she got injured. She has become more powerful as time goes on because of the “dark rises and light to meet it” premise but that’s because Rey/Ben are deliberately written as yin/yang, light/dark etc.
People think differently of the character because she’s female. The internet is full of sexist whining about Rey. They pretend it isn’t realistic but plenty of male characters have power for no reason other than the story demands it.
Harry Potter was a Gary Sue but you don’t see this Guy screaming about it. If a man has to flaunt and fluff his peacock feathers about all the girls throwing themselves at him, I instantly take it as a lie.
Eff him
If the term Mary Sue is okay or not, I don’t care, but Rey was overpowered without any question. It was nothing like Luke, because he actually was trained as a Jedi before beating Vader. Plus, he had a flawed personality. Rey is perfect.
This was my biggest problem with TFA. And I was deeply disappointed, because it was so great that we finally had a true lead female character in Star Wars. But the minute she instantly starts to use her power and it *does what she wants it to* was unbearable for me.
If she was just a savant and hugely powerful, but clumsy because she lacked training, that would have been fine.
I liked what TLJ did in regards to this (and I enjoyed TLJ far more than TFA in general), but Rey’s character is still very problematic.
Max Landis sounds like he frequents redpill on reddit.
My thoughts go out to that “chick” whose psyche this bastard ruined for years to come, I was there too, it’s taken me half a decade to pick up the pieces of what I once was and reassemble something that reminds myself again, not what the person what I was with made me into. I changed how I looked and behaved entirely for a man too. I still feel guilty about it though I shouldn’t, especially since I was in my late teens (not that any person at all should feel guilty for changing themselves for a manipulative, abusive monster).
What a monstrous manchild. F-ck this guy and his ugly f-cking shirt.
I will so enjoy watching this little creeps career tank.
Good for you, Shijel, I am so glad you got back to yourself! Sending you internet hugs from a stranger to you if you want them!
I’m so sorry that you went through that. Hugs to you.
You were in your late teens? Of course you did what you did – good for you for having the strength and moxie to keep moving forward and growing past that creep. Like the others here, I’m sorry you had to go through it.
Cool story, bro, but what I basically got out of this is that you’re fully admitting that women wouldn’t f*ck you if it wasn’t for the fame and power your daddy’s money bought you.
Ding Ding Ding Ding Exactly! I don’t know if he was trying to be self deprecating and it just went off the rails, or what, but he definitely seems to be a major nepotism-benefiting asshole with major issues about women. Ugh.
“I’m a tiny, tiny bit successful…..” , oh he’s tiny alright but it’snot success that I’m thinking about. When American Ultra was a flop, he went on a twitter rant and blamed everything and everyone on it’s failure – never thought that it might have had something to do with his directing the movie. He named a lot of critics and said some really harsh things about them …..I’m actually surprised this guy can get financing for any film any longer. He’s such a cliche`,
That interview is actually from 2013.
Yes, I’m sorry, I added an update. This interview started making the rounds again last week because of the allegations against Landis – he pretty much bragged about being an abusive asshole in 2013, and surprise, women are coming forward with stories about how he’s an abusive asshole.
That, and to be honest, adults are not terribly prone to change, especially adult rich white men. They don’t have to change, or at least they didn’t until recently until they finally started feeling the long overdue heat.
For some reason I really don’t think this fella’s done extensive soul searching, and even if he had, being remorseful won’t save you from consequences of sh-t you did five years ago.
Douche daddy, douche son.
Thanks for the fix! I suspect we’re going to be hearing plenty more new stuff about him soon.(And, wooooo, he seemed like a douche back then and is still one today.)
His spray tan is uneven, and he’s right that everyone in Hollywood is more attractive than he is. Also, he is a douche.
He’s got enormous … ears, too. I’ve known so many guys like this, who grew up nerdy and suddenly got female attention for some reason or other. And then revealed themselves as jerks. How much effort in life is dedicated to propping up the male ego.
There’s two broad types of nerds. The ones who being picked on gave empathy and kindness too, whose own ‘weirdness made them recognize the uniqueness in others. Then there are the ones who used it to callous themselves. Who instead of realizing the grade and high school game is broken, instead espouse all the nasty ideals of a 16 year old.
They think being smart makes them better, and that they ‘deserve’ certain things. Landis is the toxic nerd.
Yeah, those typical nerds who were picked on either end up being incredibly kind or incredible assholes.
Wow. Is he okay?
nah…he is just a douche lord that was raised by nannies and private school. No consequences for his words.
Well, at least he’s honest about it and apparently has the self awareness to know that these women are not throwing themselves at him for his good looks or winning personality.
I have known guys like that, who use nearly that exact language. Often it’s really more like tough talk and how they would *like* things to be, not how they really are. If one woman offered to sleep with them, it becomes “chicks throwing themselves at (me) left and right”. Now, of course, as a guy with power in Hollywood I do believe that all this actually happens to him. And I believe every single woman’s story of awful behavior by this guy. It’s like he watched Beavis and Butthead and thought that they were role models.
I didn’t have any problem with what he wrote until he talked about his girlfriend. The stuff about being a successful director and women throwing themselves out there, yeah, I bet that happens a lot.
I actually liked Bright, not a great movie but it was good. Don’t understand the hatred, the story’s been done before but it was fine.
I actually felt nauseous reading that.
I cannot believe that just four years ago, that interview was published without any kind of outcry (at least not that I can recall). I’m glad things are changing but by god they needed to.
Oh, it was a thing. I know that I’ve read this before. But Landis is 1) not particularly successful and 2) in a niche genre. Though previously, it was delivered in terms of “Max Landis is his own worst enemy”.
You’re right, I guess I meant that I don’t remember reading about it (and I read about a dozen news and celeb websites
most days). What a scumbag.
His father is an ass, not surprised he is too.
Word.
Wow this guy is an abusive, entitled, piece of garbage? I’m so surprised I almost raised an eyebrow there for a moment. Least shocking thing ever.
Considering his rich Daddy’s actions that contributed to the deaths of a veteran actor and two innocent little children on the set of one of his movies I don’t think “accountability” is big in this family:
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/07/the_twilight_zone_tragedy_how_vic_morrow_s_death_changed_the_way_films_are_made.html
Yep the Twilight Zone movie set deaths are the first thing I think of when I hear the Landis name. Awful.
Yes, I cannot hear “Landis” without thinking how John Landis got away with killing several people, including two children, because he was rich and famous.
his preoccupation about chicks can’t get enough of him made me think that it’s all in his head somehow. just like his “likeability factor” is in his head. or misconstruing some random act of kindness as a come-on which HE valiantly turned down because in his delusion they want his money.
Boy he’s lucky he was born on third base or else he’d be paying girls for sex with his Walmart manager salary.
Plus, talk about nepotism/white privilege. None of those movies he’s written have been successful but he continues to work. Ugh.
Hahahahahahahahah! Thank you for the laugh.
He continues to get a lot of industry mileage from Chronicle, as well.
It breaks my heart that in 2017, there remains a younger generation of men who think and speak this way about women. Zero evolvement. I felt like I was reading a Playboy interview with one of the Rat Pack from the 1950’s.
I will probably get in trouble for this comment, but I was sure he was gay and I’m surprised his abusive behavior involves women. I rarely use a word gaydar and I would often get mad here for people theorizing about Jake Gyllenhaal or JGL’s sexuality, but Max Landis was one of the exceptions where I would never even question his sexuality, because I was absolutely certain he was gay (not even bi). He’s like a walking comedy show type of a gay stereotype, down to the over the top mannerisms and vocal fry and it has nothing to do with his clothes or rainbow hair he was sporting for a while. So either, I was completely wrong all this time and I should put my foot back in my mouth or – here comes my theory: he is one of those men who are super deeply in the closet and are extremely self-loathing and try to overcompensate and prove their masculinity in a very toxic way – so they constantly talk about “chicks” throwing themselves at them and how good at sex they are, they mistreat women to brag about it to fellow toxic men and want to prove what a strong “real” man they are. He ticks all the boxes except for trying to look like a lumberjack/hobo mix, but LA artist types can get away with any looks.
But either way – he is a massive douchebag and it’s too bad because I really do enjoy “Dirk Gently…” and I was waiting for a second season.
You could very well be correct!
Yeah, I usually don’t do that either and I try not to read into mannerisms too much, but everything I’ve seen by this guy featured at least two men in a relationship that easily could’ve been read as a romantic one. As if he it bubbled up in his writing.
It might have been in the now-deleted Shelby Sells interview, but I clearly remember reading an interview with Landis way back in the day where he discussed fooling around with guys. I think he identified as queer or bi when he was (much) younger, but then realized he didn’t get much pleasure from guys. He was very frank about it and didn’t seem ashamed at all.
I got the impression that he’s probably a Kinsey 1 with no romantic attraction to men. Basically the straight guy equivalent of the gay guy who hooks up with girls in high school/college and enjoys it, but then has sex with a guy and realizes how much better it is so he stops with the ladies and identifies as gay despite being technically bisexual. It’s easy to imagine 19/20 yo Max Landis garnering far more sexual interest from men than women, and just going with his opportunities. When he started having career success, his opportunities expanded, so he stopped messing around with guys.
(Also, lol, come on… JGL and Michael Pitt were totally a thing.)
Yeah…as an LGBT woman, I can assure you that misogyny is alive and well in the gay community. For a lot of (especially white) gay men, having no any interest in f*cking women just removes any pretense that women were anything but inferior commodities to them. After all, you don’t have to be nice to a person that offers you nothing you want, yeah?
+1
True enough. But next level misogyny is usually directed at women who the misogynist is attracted to but knows he can’t ‘get’. That’s when it gets really nasty.
So true. I was following a gay guy’s blog once a couple of years back and he was going on about a (heterosexual) couple who were renting out the top of his house. How there was often shouting and the guy would beat her up. The blogger basically said she can nag and obviously set him off. When I questioned/tried to educate the guy that there is never an excuse for domestic violence, he was unrepentant about his view and just kept saying that a person can push someone’s buttons and lead a person to that point. I am a huge supporter of LGBTIQ rights, but the misogyny and hatred of women in some parts of the gay community is scary and as bad as Trump supporters.
I’ve encountered those types. They fall under “tiresome” in my personal dictionary.
I really like Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Too bad this guy’s a douche.
Yeah it’s cute. Did he just screen write a few episodes, or is he one of the main creators of the show?
I don’t know who **this** is. He’s disgusting. I doubt that so many ladies were eager to have sex with him. I think he’s a liar.
Wow. This is what they mean when they say “d**k is abundant and low value”.
A douche for sure. He is certainly an overcompensating thin character but I think it’s so important to hold women accountable around playing into this D bags game. Have some moral boundary, have confidence in your body, have a good radar for these dudes. I get annoyed by the villain and victim game. It’s just as much our responsibility as a society to not raise and reinforce dudes like these as it’s it’s to raise women with strong sense of selves.
+1
very true.
Hmm, it’s bizarre that a douchbro like Landis could be a part of writing female characters like Farrah and Tina Tevetino. (I know Dirk is based on books, but still).
Max Landis is known as a terrible person. That interview excerpted? The overarching theme was about how he’s so awful he’s sabotaging his own potential for success (which, if you look at his movies, doesn’t need much to push him in that direction). He’s skated by on his dad’s influence his entire adult life. Any consequences that come his way will be richly deserved.
This just goes to show that there are men who are self-aware about how abusive they are to people sometimes.
Sorry, but I also believe the part about “chicks throwing themselves at him”.
He might be a prick but there is no denying there are thots everywhere. I’ve seen it happen.
Let us pray that his victims will heal and he will find a way to change his behavior.
thots, really?
Did you just use the term “thots”?? What mature adult goes around using that as a descriptive of women?
Women please stop letting these types of men into your emotional core, the so called fake boy “alphas”. So called red pilled men. Never open up to them emotionally because they will always use it against you. Give your true inner self and emotions to the men who deserve it not the douche Lords.
Somehow I doubt that you’d say on a thread about Kevin Spacey, Bryan Singer, or George Takei: “He may be a prick but there are F*ggots everywhere. I’ve seen it.”
I read something many years ago about athletes partying in the Olympic Village (after their events were done, of course). The men that were the hottest bachelors? The ones who won medals, even if they were incredibly unattractive, like Michael Phelps. But the women? Just the hot ones – it didn’t matter if they placed 99th in their events. Somewhere along the way, women became willing to sleep with men, no matter how horrid, simply to be adjacent to fame. Those women throwing themselves at Max Landis? I hope they’re suitably ashamed of themselves.
But seriously, don’t use the term “thot”. It’s stupid.
No surprise here just look at the header pic if i didn’t have to type this i would be sitting on my hands for fear of punching my pc screen. To quote the great Darth Vader “THE DOUCHE IS STRONG WITH THIS ONE”
Now I know why Bright sucked, the script had douchbag written all over it.
Bright could have been better as their was potential. The dark elf character could have been a real badass villain but we never got to see much of her. The plot was all over the place. For me the only bright spot was Édgar Ramirez with his fabulous hair and colour coordinated wardrobe.
I know him only from watching his debates on ScreenJunkies movie fights, and he’s really good at it. I also knew he was a screenwriter but honestly didn’t think people cared about him or paid attention to him…also?? For some reason I thought he was gay??
A privileged rich spoon fed kid that gained his small success from his Dad’s money teet. Its not only these men are all a bunch of harnessers, they wield their money & influence as a weapon. Given unchallenged power and the so called “right” to say anything they want to say without consequences. Privileged rich lives. Its not only about man privilege, its also hugely about the privilege of the rich taking advantage of their inheritance of power from their fathers. Generation after generation of being spoiled.
Controlling the future gives one more power than just making money. And the future means anything from the next generation to setting impossible beauty/cultural standard that shape how people think.
I’m sure that, as far as his nerdy friends go, this guy is king dork.
That Daily Beast article is an epic roast – almost as good as the Matt Damon one from last week. This douche is the poster child of rich white male privilege mixed with being a sociopath.
This is like some kind of sick performance. I hate him. I didn’t know he even existed, I’m sorry I do now. Barf.
And this piece of shit STILL has people defending him, I attempted to put a very neutrally-phrased statement that he’d been accused of these assaults on his Wikipedia (because it’s plain fact he has been accused) and what do I find in the edit history but people talking about not allowing “slanderous” statements about this guy – and my (again, very mild and factual) changes aren’t visible.
Honestly when it comes to sexual assault, naming and shaming is the only way to go for these men. Which is why every one of sexual predator’s wiki pages and top search results should contain that info.
But I was happy to see people calling Max Landus out as a sexual predator in the comments of the Variety (or was it THR?) article that featured him whining about how hard it was to be a nepotism baby. Like one of the comments said, even Sofia Coppola didn’t whine as much and her father is far more famous than John Landis.
Do people still use the term “chicks?”
I forgot him. His father is an a-hole creep so a- hole creep begets another a-hole creep. I hope someone does a full expose on him and throws his ugly az in jail.
In a perfect world, he and Donny Jr would be cellmates.
I have never heard of this guy but he looks and sounds creepy. He also resembles Adam Sandler who is just a huge douchebag to me so this doesn’t help things.
Wow. OMFG. This dude is awful! He makes Matt Damon look woke af in comparison. I had a boyfriend do that to me, gaslighting genius he was. It was years before I felt like myself again, I even contemplated suicide. And here this a$$hole acts like it’s effin’ funny? His poor ex. I hope he never gets a “chick” again.
John Landis has always been one of my favorite directors, but he is the reason why Jennifer Jason Leigh’s father, Vic Morrow, tragically died during the segment he directed for The Twighlight Zone Movie. Ironically, Vic thanked Landis publically before the shoot, because he hadn’t had big movie role in years and was just doing tv shows in the 70’s and early 80’s. Landis was never vilified for his death so it doesn’t surprise me that his own son’s actions have never been publically held accountable by his father. Max is definitely making his father’s legacy look horrible for raising such a mysogynisitc, nepotistic ahole! Interestingly, you never hear anything bad about Director/writer/producer Jason Reitman, whose legendary father, Ivan Reitman, has collaborated many times with John Landis! I don’t know if that’s because Jason grew up in Canada as opposed to Hollywood like Max did?
Don’t forget the two very young child actors who were also killed, Renee Chen and Myca Dinh Le, who Landis had doing night-filming, which was against child labor laws.
American Ultra was a real piece of shit. This guy should take a hard look at why he’s selling material (his daddy) and then take a screenwriting lesson.
Heh. Victor Frankenstein was as perfect an example of a “movie nobody needed” as it gets.
I love the fact that calling out abusers is not seen as just a “woman’s thing” any more. This douchebag is getting ripped to shreds by his male contempories on Twitter, which makes me happy.