Key Takeaways

• Lynton’s Reflection: Michael Lynton considers the release of The Interview as his career’s biggest mistake.
• Consequences: The Sony hack resulted in significant chaos and damage to relationships within the industry.
• Presidential Involvement: Former President Obama questioned Lynton’s decision-making regarding the film’s plot.
• Personal Admission: Lynton acknowledges a desire for acceptance influenced his decision to greenlight the film.

Oh, 2014, you rascal. Looking back, things certainly were simpler, like when Snapchat was the most popular app around, Pharrell Williams wore questionable hats, and Ellen DeGeneres shared “the most epic selfie of all time.” Before she got canceled. Like I said, simpler times. Do you know who else remembers 2014? Former CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Michael Lynton. Why? Because that was the year Seth Rogen and James Franco‘s The Interview came to theaters, and oh boy, hindsight really is 20-20 sometimes.

What does Lynton consider his biggest mistake?

In a recent excerpt from Lynton’s upcoming memoir, From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn’t Own You, published in the Wall Street Journal, Lynton opens up about how The Interview’s plot involving two bumbling men’s plan to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was the “biggest mistake of my career,” because it led to the infamous Sony hack.

In the excerpt, Lynton recalls the phone call he received about 70 percent of Sony’s servers being “fried,” along with hackers releasing innumerable private emails, confidential scripts, and personal information. Most of us remember the incident as the time PlayStation Online was down for 23 days, leading to the decimation of leaderboards and log-in progress. Tragic, I know. It didn’t take long for the FBI to get involved in the hack. The law enforcement agency then suggested that North Korea was the most likely culprit. They wanted to keep The Interview from releasing, seeing the satirical comedy as an affront to Kim Jong Un, who, as you know, does not mess around.

How did the Sony hack create chaos?

The hack was mighty, causing all manners of chaos throughout Sony, including, but not limited to, damaging the studio’s relationships with celebrities like Will Smith, Adam Sandler, and Angelina Jolie. Even President Barack Obama got involved. The former president called Lynton at the time, saying, “What were you thinking when you made killing the leader of a hostile foreign nation a plot point? Of course that was a mistake.”

What does Lynton mean by middle school mentality?

In the excerpt, Lynton admits he greenlit The Interview because of his “desire to belong,” while being concerned about the “opinions of others.” Wow, dude. Way to jeopardize national security and almost tank your company for the sake of sitting at the cool table in the Hollywood cafeteria.

“Just for a moment, I wanted to join the badass gang that made subversive movies,” Lynton wrote. “For a moment, I wanted to hang — as an equal — with the actors. I had grown tired of playing the responsible adult, of watching the party from the outside while I played Risk.”

Lynton added, “My middle-school self took over, and my adult self lost the courage to disappoint the other kids. The party got out of hand, and the company, its employees, my family and I all paid dearly.”

Good grief, dude. It’s nice that you can finally admit the depth of the mistake; but honestly, what the hell? I’m sure your former job felt like an ongoing popularity contest; but you’ve got to be above all that stuff if you want to become an industry titan. We’re lucky the hack wasn’t worse.

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