Gwyneth Horder-Payton Says Frank Darabont Email Was “Pretty Rough” – TCA

Director Gwyneth Horder-Payton has addressed the recent scandal involving derogatory comments former Walking Dead showrunner Frank Darabont made about her in an email when she was working on the show.

“That was extreme,” Horder-Payton said when asked how she had felt about Darabont’s personal comments. His message emerged as part of discovery in a lawsuit brought against AMC by Darabont and his agents at CAA following his dismissal midway through Season 2 of Walking Dead, after a dispute over rightful profit participation.

Speaking on a panel for FX directors at TCA, Horder-Payton added: “It’s pretty rough. Now that I’ve said I’m going to speak about it, I don’t know what to say. Basically, that was so extreme, it’s very hard to talk about that one, but another one that I went through, I would say that you have to keep your vision. It’s best not to defend yourself, you have to just march forward and do the work, and that’s how I’ve dealt with some bad behavior and some strife. And basically if I had to say anything — which I did — it’s, ‘You know what? The proof is in the pudding. Let me just go and do my work and then we’ll see how the episode turns out.’ And then they turned out, with the exception of that one, for various reasons.”