Ex-Rocksteady writer asks for name to be left off Suicide Squad credits
Senior scriptwriter says she wrote the original 2018 letter alerting management to sexual harassment problems and was pushed out for it
Some of the Rocksteady Studios women who co-signed a letter accusing management of permitting sexual harassment have come to the studio's defense, but one has gone public with additional allegations.
Former Rocksteady scriptwriter Kim MacAskill has also responded to The Guardian article in a 13-minute YouTube video in which she says she wrote the original November 2018 letter.
"When I left, I thought things had improved," MacAskill said. "Now I'm learning that they haven't. And I am so angry."
MacAskill said she originally wrote the letter because she had personally experienced sexism at the studio, and heard from another woman who had been sexually assaulted by another employee but was forced to continue working with him as HR conducted an investigation.
"Through my complaints and hers, the one thing we noticed was that no one asked if we were OK. No one asked how we were. It was like HR quarantine. No one spoke to you when you were complaining."
She said she began speaking with the other women at the studio at the time about their experiences and drafted a letter in the hopes of having them co-sign it and take it to management. She drafted multiple versions of the letter, taking feedback from the women she spoke with in order to make it reflect their experiences accurately.
"In that time, HR tried to stop me at least twice," MacAskill said. "And I had members of higher management take me aside to not only tell me to stop what I was doing, but to tell me that continuing to do so would potentially jeopardize my position within the company. And not just that, but it would maybe even jeopardize my position of being hired by other companies going forward because I might be seen as a troublemaker."
MacAskill believes the company got rid of her because of the letter. She stopped working at Rocksteady in 2019.
"As a result of it, yeah, I lost my job. I lost my job. They will never admit that. But [they] quite clearly told me they could no longer afford me and replaced me with a writer within the month. Everyone knew what had happened, and I think it did deter women from coming forward."
MacAskill backed the original Guardian report's account that Rocksteady's only response to the letter was to have a seminar about sexism, and that it never explained the reason for it or acknowledged the inciting letter to the studio at large.
"It's only taken a couple phone calls for me to realize this behavior is still happening. It's like all of our effort meant for nothing. That makes me feel… it's more than anger, it's proper humiliation."
MacAskill concluded by asking Rocksteady to leave her name off the credits of the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League game she worked on.
"Seeing that things haven't improved, Rocksteady, I am formally asking you to take my name off of your game. I do not want to be associated with your game. I do not want to be associated with your company. My entire memory of being in your company as one of your only senior females was trying to protect the women in your company while you allowed them to be continually assaulted, abused, and harassed, and the whole time -- the whole time -- protecting the people that were doing it, people that I know are still in that company."
A representative with Rocksteady parent Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment did not immediately return a request for comment.