Sony co-chairman Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin have apologized after racially insensitive emails they sent to each other leaked online as part of a massive hack of Sony Pictures.
"The content of my emails were insensitive and inappropriate but are not an accurate reflection of who I am," Pascal said in a statement provided to The Huffington Post. "Although this was a private communication that was stolen, I accept full responsibility for what I wrote and apologize to everyone who was offended."
In a statement to Deadline.com, Rudin said that while the emails were private correspondences between friends that were "written in haste and without much thought or sensitivity," he understood the notes were out of line. "I made a series of remarks that were meant only to be funny, but in the cold light of day, they are in fact thoughtless and insensitive," he said.
In the emails, published by BuzzFeed on Wednesday night, Pascal and Rudin discussed what movies President Barack Obama would probably count among his favorites. "'Ride-Along,'" Rudin wrote. "I bet he likes Kevin Hart." Other films with black casts that Pascal and Rudin presumed Obama would enjoy included "Django Unchained," "12 Years A Slave," "Lee Daniels' The Butler" and "Think Like A Man Too."
The Obama emails were the second embarrassing chain of emails between Rudin and Pascal to leak this week. On Tuesday, Defamer published emails between the pair that detailed their battles over Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs movie. Other information that has leaked out in the wake of the data breach include Sony's discussions about the future of Spider-Man, a potential crossover between "21 Jump Street" and "Men in Black" as well as the budget of "Spectre," the new James Bond film.
In an interview with Deadline.com on Thursday, Pascal said she was "embarrassed, deeply" for the emails, but also questioned news outlets that are "trafficking" in the "stolen property."
"Look, I understand these things are juicy, salacious and tempting to the people who are reading them," she said. "I would ask that they reserve some kind of judgment about those stolen emails defining someone. This one e-mail was really hard for me. Otherwise, I realize I’m just going to have to move forward. I cannot worry every day, about the next thing that's going to be read by the town about me, something I said in a moment of weakness, stupidity or tactlessness."
For the full interview, head to Deadline.com.
This post has been updated to include quotes from Pascal's interview with Deadline.com.