When I first got into the industry, I was very fortunate to get on certain shows like Supergirl, Sabrina, and a few features here in there, but the highlight of my entry to film was Batwoman season one. I was an actor, aspiring to know more about the film industry, and when the job came up I was so excited, being a DC fan and a huge fan of Warner Bros., I jumped at the opportunity.
My philosophy was that I could learn as much as I could on set and then go on to do my own films. Little did I know of the hell that away to me on those sets. The production company was professional, dialed in, and in every way fantastic. The crew was lovely, hard-working and dedicated to countless night shoots, it sounded to be an amazing experience in the making. Then came Ruby Rose. From day one, where her supposed injury stopped her from doing 60% of her job, she began her first day on the show not acknowledging a single crewmember besides anyone above the line. And as the days stretched on, the 18 hour Saturdays for some of us and the crew, things got worse. She showed up late most days, didn’t have her lines memorized, and whenever she interacted with anyone below the line, production assistant, LX crew, grips, it was as though we were beneath her boots. She stormed off set, she yelled at people, and whenever she interacted with any of us production assistants, we were disregarded as the trash we picked up. One day at the studio we spent the entire morning setting up her requested green room (six heaters, because she was used to Australian hot weather, and her table of snacks), only to have her show up, giggle, walk away and say she is good. We chalked it up to another “Ruby is just giving orders for the sake of giving orders moment” and moved on. Then, I was holding a door open for her, after having worked over 15 hours at that point in the freezing cold weather, and she came billowing through the door that I just opened, and she spilt her food. She looked at it, then up at me, and said: “well?” and then stormed off and left me to clean up her mess. That is what it felt like working beneath Ruby: cleaning up her mess. She never thanked us, she only made demands that left us all exhausted emotionally and physically.
She was a dictator to work for, and having been nothing but a production assistant eager to get into the industry, she made me consider quiting. If this was the industry I was going to get into, I sure as hell wasn’t going to work for entitled tyrants. Living downtown, I met one of her close friends on a dating app and he shared with me stories of them partying and getting high on all assortments of drugs, and funnily enough the days where she showed up 8 hours late to set, were the days he spoke about. She didn’t care how long we waited for her and made sure everything was perfect and ready, she just cared about her personal party lifestyle.
We worked countless long days, always going into overtime because she was either late or not off book, or some other reason relating to her not wanting to be there. From the moment we started the show she made every new person that came on uneasy and unsupported. She was a horrible star and made so many of us feel like we were helping make a show for a dictator.
Filmmakers, no matter what position they are on a film set deserve to be treated with respect. That’s how I was taught growing up and in film school, and when I read her article claiming that the production was at fault, it infuriated me because having been there, I don’t wanna stand by and let her badmouth a company that she tried to screw over. No matter how bad your day, you have no right to be cruel. And season 1 was her reign of cruelty.
