The other month came word that CBS Television Studios had fired Peter M. Lenkov, showrunner and executive producer of the “MacGyver,” “Hawaii Five-0” and “Magnum P.I.” reboots on CBS, for creating a toxic on-set environment.
Now “MacGyver” star Lucas Till has spoken with Vanity Fair about said environment and revealed that Lenkov drove him to feeling “suicidal” after the show’s first year. The young “X-Men” actor says though there were times he and showrunner had a cordial relationship, he endured numerous instances of bullying, verbal abuse and body-shaming by Lenkov. He tells the magazine:
“I’ve never worked this hard in my life, and I am fine with hard work. 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… [Lenkov] said my legs were ‘f–king hideous’ and we can never show them again. 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 f–king boy’…I’ve struggled with maintaining ‘man weight’ on the show because of the stress, no time to work out, and an unpredictable schedule for proper nourishment.”
A spokesperson for Lenkov tells the outlet Till’s accusations are “100% false and untrue” and claims he has championed Till “from the very beginning and has been nothing but supportive of him.”
The piece in the magazine however goes much further, speaking to over thirty sources who worked with Lenkov in some capacity over all three show and “the portrait most people painted was extraordinarily troubling – not just because of what Lenkov allegedly put people through, but because they felt that CBS must have known about it for years.”
For the full story, head on over to Vanity Fair.
