Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW
Candice Pattonis getting candid about her early days onThe Flash.
On a recent episode ofThe Open Up Podcast, the actress, 34, revealed that she wanted to leave the series “as early as” Season 2 due to being “severely unhappy.” At the time, she recalled receiving racially charged messages from fans online after making her debut as Iris West in 2014.
“I remember being like, ‘I can’t do this. I’m not going to make it through. I don’t want to be here,’ " she said of her headspace during the beginning of her time with the show, which has been airing for eight seasons.
She said that as a Black woman, the role came with a lot of “responsibility” and that she experienced “backlash” from fans who “can be racist.” She also claimed that she didn’t receive “help” from others in the workplace.
“At the time, it was kind of like, ‘Yeah, that’s how fans are, butwhatever,’ " Patton said on the episode.
She continued, “Even with the companies I was working with — CW, Warner Bros. — I think that was their way of handling it. I think we know better now. It’s not OK to treat your talent that way, to let them go through abuse and harassment. But for me in 2014, there were no support systems. No one was looking out for that. It was just free range to get abused every single day.”
She added, “There were no social media protocols in place to protect me; they just let all that stuff sit there.”
Bettina Strauss/The CW
As for the changes she wants to see, Patton emphasized, “There has to be people in positions of power who understand my experience and understand the Black experience, the Black female experience who can say, ‘OK, she needs protection.’ "
“We still need protection because the world sees us in a certain way. So when I step onto set and everyone working around me is white … I’m not protected; I will never be protected. And that’s not to say that these people have bad intentions … but they have blind spots. They have a lot of blind spots, and that can also contribute to my harm. It’s been a learning experience, I’m sure, for companies and corporations and productions,” she said.
“I remember asking my publicist, I was like, ‘Do you think you could getThe Flashaccount to follow me?’ " she said. “Back when I cared about that s— and wanted to be included.”
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Despite not feeling supported, the actress said she stayed due to contractual obligations and because she felt “a huge responsibility,” adding: “My fans loved this character.”
She explained, “It was such an iconic casting, such an iconic role, and I knew how much this meant to so many people that I felt a responsibility to stay in a space and a place that was probably very toxic for my mental health.”
Representatives for CW’sThe Flashand Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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The news comes after itwas revealed in Aprilthat Jesse L. Martin would be stepping down as a series regular.
TheArrowverseseries has also made several additions including Danielle Nicolet as Cecile, Kayla Compton as Allegra, and Brandon McKnight as Chester.
source: people.com
