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Roy Price was put on leave of absence after Isa Hackett, executive producer of The Man in the High Castle, gave an interview detailing her allegations.
Roy Price was suspended today as head of Amazon Studios after Isa Hackett, an executive producer of Amazon's The Man in the High Castle, came forward with allegations of sexual harassment by him.
Price "is on a leave of absence, effective immediately," Deadline reports. Also, attorney Lisa Bloom, who recently dropped Harvey Weinstein as a client, has quit representing Price as well, according to Deadline, but she said she made the decision before Hackett's account became public.
The Hollywood Reporter today published an interview in which Hackett detailed the incident, which she said took place the evening of July 10, 2015, while she was promoting The Man in the High Castle at Comic-Con in San Diego. After spending the day at the convention, she joined the show's cast and Amazon staffers at a dinner, where she met Price for the first time. He invited her to an Amazon party afterward, and she shared a taxi to the party with Price and another Amazon exec.
"Once in the cab, Hackett says Price repeatedly and insistently propositioned her," the Reporter relates. "'You will love my dick,' he said, according to Hackett, who relayed her account to multiple individuals in the hours after the alleged episode. ... Hackett says she made clear to Price she was not interested and told him that she is a lesbian with a wife and children." He continued pressuring her at the party; at one point, while she was talking to a group of people, he went up to her to shout "Anal sex!" in her ear, she told the publication.
She reported the incident to Amazon management, which hired an outside consultant to investigate. She never learned the conclusions the investigation reached, but she hasn't encountered Price since, she told the Reporter.
Before confirming to Deadline that Price was suspended, Amazon's only comment on the matter was a statement to the Reporter, saying the company "looked closely at this specific concern and addressed it directly with those involved." Price, through a representative, declined comment.
"Hackett previously was reluctant to talk publicly about the incident," the Reporter notes. "While her story is not on the same level as the claims of rape leveled at Weinstein, she nonetheless has decided to detail the encounter after hearing the recent stories of other women in Hollywood."
"Having power and influence is such a huge responsibility," she told the Reporter. "As somebody with some power, I feel it is imperative for me to speak out. I want to call out [Price's] behavior and also hold myself to a certain standard."
"I feel inspired by the other women who have been far braver than I am, who have come forward," she added. She said one thing that can help change the "culture of harassment" in Hollywood is "an infusion of new and diverse leadership, not just including women but gay people, people of color, people with disabilities -- people with the full spectrum of life experience."
Hackett is the daughter of the late writer Philip K. Dick; The Man in the High Castle is based on his novel of the same name. She is also executive producer of an upcoming Amazon anthology series adapted from his writings, Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams. His novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was adapted into the 1982 film Blade Runner, and the recently released sequel, Blade Runner 2049, is based on characters created by Dick.
Actress Rose McGowan had also recently spoken out about Amazon, tweeting that "she had told the head of Amazon Studios -- that would be Price -- about being molested by Weinstein and urged the company not to 'bailout' Weinstein, which she claims led to her Amazon project getting killed," Deadline reports. Amazon has not commented on this matter, according to Deadline. Her Twitter account was briefly blocked late Wednesday; Twitter officials said it was because one of her tweets included a private phone number, which violates its terms of service. It has now been restore.
