As you know, Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland has found his life and career exploding as he is facing domestic abuse allegations. On top of that, court documents confirmed the writer and actor was facing felony charges for an incident in 2020. Since then he’s been dropped from Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites, and Koala Man.
We’re now learning some behind the scenes details of what Roiland was like in the workplace, and it seems like it was pretty bizarre and chaotic. These details are from a scathing report from The Hollywood Reporter, who talked to dozens of anonymous staffers from Rick and Morty.
One of the things they explain is that Roiland didn’t really ever show up for work. “At some point during the third season of Rick and Morty, multiple sources say Roiland simply stopped showing up – and when he did turn up in the Burbank offices, he’d typically avoid the writer’s room. In fact, Roiland’s colleagues often knew he was there only because they could hear his dogs. Or they’d hear his remote-control toy car, which had a microphone on top of it, zooming around the office.” They also say that when Roiland showed up, he would be giving personal tours to adult entertainment stars like Riley Reid.
Sources went on to say that during the creation of Season 3, Roiland received a lot of crap for drawing “penis monsters and other vulgar characters” in the office while writers were present. He also allegedly spoke openly about his sexual exploits with his girlfriend including their interest in threesomes. A source said: “It was something we just ignored because it was disgusting.”
At another point Roiland sent a female employee a “really creepy” text, late at night, requesting that she come to his home. A source explained, “She didn’t want to run it up the flagpole, and then it was just this really f**ked-up, awkward thing.” He was also under the influence of alcohol a lot of the time.
It’s this kind of behavior that eventually led to the destruction of Roiland’s relationship with series co-creator Dan Harmon.
Roiland’s involvement on Rick and Morty was basically was just voicing the characters, and in regard to that, he wouldn’t take any direction, and he would record from his home. In fact, “It has been years since anyone can remember him stepping foot in the show’s writers room, even when it’s been virtual.”
There are also reports of similar situations on his other shows such as Solar Opposites and Koala Man. On Solar Opposites, he had, until mid-January, voiced one of the show’s leads. A source explained, “He knew the power of being the voices’” and noted how, “Roiland had revealed early on that he believed securing key voice roles would safeguard him from being fired one day.” Well, that plan didn’t work out very well.
On Koala Man, which he executive produced, he was given one character to voice in the show’s third episode but, according to insiders, “The writers almost blew their deadline waiting for him. The character was killed off at the end of the episode.”
The report goes on to say: “As the allegations and headlines accumulated, staffers wrestled with their association, desperate to telegraph that Roiland had not been meaningfully involved, save his voice renderings, for years. In fact, they ‘barely knew’ the man that they were now reading about. A number of Rick and Morty staffers, with the blessing of a broad swath of personnel, sent a letter to Adult Swim and new corporate parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, that demanded the company put out a statement and clarify Roiland’s position on the show.” Which they did.
Since Roiland’s downfall, multiple women started sharing lewd messages they claimed to have received from Roiland. You can read more about those in the report. I just wanted to focus on the crazy things that were going on in the workplace with him.
Sounds like he was the kind of guy that was a nightmare to work with and be around. Well, I guess karma caught up with him.