“I was suicidal that first year on the show, because of the way he made me feel.”
Lucas Till just went public with allegations of mistreatment at the hands of fired “MacGyver” showrunner Peter Lenkov.
Lenkov, who was also the creator of CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum, P.I. reboots, was fired earlier this month after being accused of fostering a toxic work environment.
While Lenkov has denied the claims against him, “MacGyver” star Till opened up about his alleged experience with the producer while speaking with Vanity Fair.
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“I’ve never worked this hard in my life, and I am fine with hard work,” said Till. “But the way Peter treats people is just unacceptable. I was suicidal that first year on the show, because of the way he made me feel. But the way he’s treated the people around me — that’s just my breaking point.”
“There was always something about my appearance that wouldn’t please him like when I was in a hospital gown and our producer … thought it was funny that [Lenkov] said my legs were ‘fucking hideous’ and we can never show them again,” Till continued. “Honestly, I found some humor in that comment as well, but you can imagine if that was a more sensitive spot that he had hit, and often did.”
“Just like the time he screamed at [a director] ‘Oh, my f–king God! Tuck his shirt in, he looks like a little fucking boy. Just hire a 35 year old then,'” Till claimed. The actor also told HR the “stress,” lack of workout time and “an unpredictable schedule” caused him to struggle with maintaining what he described as “man weight.”
Till claimed he reported the behavior to CBS in 2017 and again this year, detailing his own alleged experience, as well as what he felt was unprofessional conduct with costar Meredith Eaton. While Till felt higher-ups “didn’t take it seriously,” Vanity Fair sources claimed his 2020 complaints led to Lenkov’s exit.
An attorney for Lenkov told Vanity Fair Till’s claims were “100 percent false and untrue” and added the producer had been “nothing but supportive” of the actor.
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Actor Daniel Dae Kim — who appeared on “Hawaii Five-0” until he and costar Grace Park allegedly left the show after they weren’t given pay parity with their costars — also confirmed Lenkov called him “shameful” for how he handled his exit.
In a statement at the time, Kim said he had made himself “available to come back” to the show, but “CBS and I weren’t able to agree to terms on a new contract.” He also wrote, “the path to equality is rarely easy.”
In a comment Kim’s rep confirmed, but Lenkov’s denied, the producer allegedly confronted the actor at the time by saying, “As a father I’m just appalled — to allow your children to think there are people you work with perpetuating racism is, again, shameful. Instead of taking the road of ‘great strides,’ you’ve taken the dark path of ‘we’re minorities’ … I had just wished you had taken the classy way out — but instead you brought ‘equality’ into it.”
Kim had no additional comment.
When he was fired by CBS earlier this month, Lenkov released a statement saying, “Now is the time to listen, and I am listening. It’s difficult to hear that the working environment I ran was not the working environment my colleagues deserved, and for that, I am deeply sorry.”