After he spent her Her entire career as a comedian and talk show host has been consumed by what others think of her, Ellen DeGeneres says in her new Netflix special. To obtain your consent She “can't do it anymore.”
“But if I'm being honest, and I have a choice between people who remember me as a mean person or a lovable person,” DeGeneres admitted to the crowd of fans attending the taping at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, she chose her boyfriend. .
While DeGeneres spends much of her private time lovingly making her case once again — reminding us of her steady, hard-earned rise to popularity, and explaining the harsh treatment she feels she's been subjected to at the hands of the media — some of the staff she's been working on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Say that the one-hour routine “continues to invalidate and deny our experiences.” Six former employees were contacted Rolling Stone (All of them still work in Hollywood and requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.) They say that in the private, DeGeneres is mixing rumors about her unpleasant behavior with more serious allegations, made in the summer of 2020, about racism, sexual misconduct and sexual harassment. Intimidation on talk shows. The allegations (which this reporter reported in a BuzzFeed News story) led to an internal investigation into the show and the firing of three producers.
“There's a difference between your personality and how you're treated in the media versus the culture you perpetuated that hurt a lot of people,” says one former employee. Rolling Stone. “She was twisting the narrative and trying to recast herself as not being a bully…she really missed the mark.”
In the first few minutes of To obtain your consentwhich began airing Sept. 24, DeGeneres walks viewers through her career legacy in a montage of clips, recreating everything she's been through on the public stage. We watch her start doing stand-up The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carsonhad an ABC sitcom in 1994 EllenFacing widespread criticism after coming out as a lesbian on the series, she achieved success again with her daytime talk show. DeGeneres then implied that she was on the receiving end of a social media pileup prompted by a post on X asking for “bad stories” about her, which led to a deluge of headlines about the work environment on her show. After taking to the stage to start her set, DeGeneres said she had been “kicked out of show business” twice — once for being gay and once for being mean.
It's a powerful attempt to reframe the narrative around why The Ellen DeGeneres Show It went off the air in 2022 after 19 seasons, former employees admit. But they say he's still evading responsibility for the alleged workplace on the show. “It feels like manipulation,” says one former employee. “You own the show To obtain your consentWhich suggests that you are trying to convince the audience to feel bad for you, and then trying to empower yourself at the same time by saying that you endured all these difficult things.
DeGeneres, 66, said that after her latest show on Netflix, she will take a step back from Hollywood, though former employees doubt this is truly her final foray into the spotlight. Some also point out the irony of DeGeneres saying she was “kicked out of show business” when she was able to share that claim on a global platform like Netflix. In 2018, DeGeneres reportedly earned $20 million for her first Netflix special, Related. according to Hollywood Reportersigned two special deals with the broadcaster at the time To obtain your consent He fulfills.
“You made millions of dollars doing a special on Netflix talking about how your job got shut down, but by the nature of making millions of dollars doing a special on Netflix, you weren't silenced,” says one former employee. “You're not being kicked out of Hollywood. Most people can't get Netflix specials.”
One former employee in particular says they looked up to DeGeneres' company when they were growing up, which made their behind-the-scenes experience particularly disappointing. The former employee understands and sympathizes with the experiences DeGeneres shares in the special about being ostracized from the entertainment industry after coming out as gay, but they also don't believe that experience takes away from what her employees may have to endure. Both things could be true at once, according to the former employee: Hollywood has been harsh and discriminatory toward DeGeneres, and she allegedly fostered an unwelcoming environment backstage at her show.
“When I was a young woman discovering my sexuality and also being a huge fan of comedy, it was [was] “The perfect person he could worship,” the employee says. “I sympathize with what she went through then, and I hope she has that empathy now. Especially after all the things she's been through, you would think she would try to remember or connect on a human level instead of turning everything physical.”
Another employee was struck by how DeGeneres compared the “end of her career” when she walked out on a skit with the end of her talk show because people considered her mean. Staff say the comedian's use of the passive voice and the implications of these things happening to her rather than taking ownership of her behavior is tone-deaf, perpetuating a pattern of lack of accountability they say DeGeneres has demonstrated over time.
“even if [her cancellation] “It was because she was mean, and this was something she did to other people, whereas being gay meant being judged, and it's interesting that she couldn't see that outside the lens of herself,” says one employee. “It's just either 'It's happening to me because I'm a strong woman' or 'It's happening to me because I'm gay.' There's no way these are the consequences of my actions. It doesn't even occur to her that these are consequences.
During the special, DeGeneres discusses her role as boss and leader on the show despite the fact that she never wanted to be either of those things. She also details her own memories of working behind the scenes with her employees and colleagues, all of them happy and positive. There was a tag game that went on for years, as well as constant pranks, DeGeneres says. Former employees who spoke to Rolling Stone Although DeGeneres tried to convince the public that “it was a happy, lucky place,” for some employees, that was only reality.
“The people she loved and the people she surrounded herself with had a good time,” says one former employee. “The nepotism was so blatant and it trickled down to the executive producers and the producers and the directors. That's the point, which is that the people you're playing with are not the people who are being asked to leave the kitchen where they're eating so you can walk past them.
Some employees also thought it was ironic for DeGeneres to mention the impact the cancellation had on her mental health given their own struggles with their own mental health while working under her. “It's true that she scared people,” adds one of the show's former writers, referring to DeGeneres' penchant for pranks where she would intentionally scare her employees. [as a joke]but this is not always a comfortable workplace where you are on the edge, and at some point someone will jump out of your closet and it is the person you fear the most. I had nightmares for years after they haunted me, and I didn't even participate in that game of tag.
Comedian and podcast host Kevin Porter sparked a public conversation about DeGeneres on March 20, 2020, when he shared a post on One of the most despicable people alive. Reply to this with the craziest stories you've ever heard about Ellen being mean and I'll match each one with $2 to @LAFoodBank.
A version of Porter's letter appears in the first montage of the Netflix special, although it is not verbatim and does not specifically credit Porter. Porter says Rolling Stone The original goal of the post was to raise money at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in a fun way, something he saw many of his peers doing online. He also points out that while To obtain your consent He makes it seem as if his stab came out of nowhere in the midst of DeGeneres' hugely successful talk show, the missing context is important. Porter says that in the year prior to this position, DeGeneres' stock was already low with the general public: She had defended Kevin Hart when he was fired from hosting the Oscars over his past anti-gay tweets. She doubled down on her friendship with George W. Bush despite criticism from her fans. Dakota Johnson famously called out DeGeneres on her show for saying she wasn't invited to Johnson's birthday party when in fact she was.
“These things are just the consequences of her actions. Whether you agree with it or disagree with it, Dakota Johnson is calling you [DeGeneres] “She went out on a bullshit thing and Ellen received criticism for rubbing shoulders with someone that a lot of her fan base and audience found disgusting, and it was completely of her own doing, as far as her reputation and her character are concerned,” Porter explains. “My tweet is very lighthearted and contains a bit of juicy gossip… So [in the Netflix special] He becomes a better scapegoat for negative attention. It was a very ingenious and elusive reworking of the whole thing.
According to Porter, no one associated with the private person reached out for permission to use his social media post, which is why his name and avatar have been hidden. The Netflix special also shows a different date on the post — Porter posted March 20 and in the montage it reads March 30 — and omits any mention of donating money to the Los Angeles Food Bank. (Representatives for Netflix and DeGeneres did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this matter.)
As for whether or not the former employees found DeGeneres' behavior funny, there were mixed reactions. Most of the employees I spoke to Rolling Stone They say they thought DeGeneres was punching; One would think it was “elementary comedy” compared to what the comedian has done in the past. Some say they appreciated some of the jokes, specifically pointing to one about “Can a mean person dance on the stairs?” Like something that flirts with self-awareness and is really funny. But in general, they believe To obtain your consent Doesn't land.
“She's charming when she's trying to be, but it's also difficult, because there's a level of artifice about her,” says one former writer. “When I wrote her and came up with jokes that were supposed to make her seem relatable, and now I watch her, I feel like I know all these tales are fake, right? There's nothing true about any of this. So it's hard to think she's funny.”
Some former employees admit that they pursued this particular program out of curiosity despite being teased by their former boss. As one person described it, “Despite the many years I spent working there, seeing her brings me back to that fear and that anxiety that I would feel. Literally, seeing her gives me a shock response. I can't say that about any other job I've ever had at Any other field.
Meanwhile, other former employees say Rolling Stone They have no interest in watching the special at all. It was part of everyone's healing process [to open up about the show]“But now I'm so done with it that I don't even like to look at it,” says one former employee. “And I won't add to its money by increasing viewership.” Another former employee who chose not to watch the special adds: “I doubt this is the last we'll hear from her. If there's a big enough price for something, she'll do it.”
For one employee in particular, watching the special actually brought a degree of finality to their time at work The Ellen DeGeneres Show And the stressful news cycle surrounding the show's finale.
“without [her] With really taking any responsibility – because she never had much, if any – she felt a little closed off. They say, “Okay, this is it.” She's back in comedic mode. I like it better there, anyway.
