love is blind Contestants were denied adequate amounts of food, water and alcohol while filming the reality TV show on Netflix, a new lawsuit alleges.
In the proposed class action lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of all love is blind Participants and participants in similar reality shows, season two contestant Jeremy Hartwell allegedly suffered several work violations while filming the show, which centers around a dating experience where couples can only see each other after their engagement.
“She left me on the show sleep-deprived, socially isolated, mentally drained, and I had what I can only describe as an out-of-body experience,” Hartwell said in a statement to The Daily Beast. I could hear myself saying things that went against what I was thinking at the time. After production, I felt and looked like a zombie for a few days.”
Hartwell, who lives in Chicago and works in the mortgage industry, did not appear in the second season of the show but was filmed for a week in 2021. During that time, he alleged in the lawsuit, the 30 cast members were impeached. From the outside world, deprived of water, they endured up to 20 hours of work. In the end, Hartwell failed to get involved and make the final cut for the show.
The only drinks that defendants regularly introduced to the cast were alcoholic beverages, sodas, energy drinks, and mixers. The suit states that hydrating drinks such as water are strictly limited to the cast during the day. “The combination of sleep deprivation, isolation, lack of food, and excessive alcohol consumption, all required, enabled or encouraged by the defendants, contributed to inhuman working conditions and altered the mental state of the crew.”
The lawsuit was filed last month against Netflix, production company Kinetic Content and Delirium TV. Netflix and Kinetic Content did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Delirium TV could not be reached for comment.
Premiering in 2020, the Emmy-nominated series is about to enter its third season. In the show, contestants meet their future life partners in separate incubators, and must participate before they can meet face to face. Then they embark on a two-week journey that ends in either a televised marriage or a public separation.
According to the lawsuit, the difficulties of the experience are exacerbated by the long days, isolation and low salaries as they are classified as independent contractors. During production, producers allegedly paid contestants $1,000 a week, even when they worked seven days in a row.
love is blind Hartwell’s attorney, Chantal Payton, said in a statement to The Daily Beast: “Realistic film production and cast companies show far greater control over contestants than the law allows a worker to be considered an independent contractor, particularly on shows where cast members are supposed to be looking for love. “.
After joining the show, the cast members were immediately isolated from their friends, family, and anyone outside of production – and had to “give up all identification, wallets, phones, cash, credit and debit cards” to the producers to make sure they were saying the suit.
The lawsuit states that “to compel the Cast to cooperate with these instructions, the Defendants also did not allow any of the cast members to hold their hotel room key to prevent them from leaving their hotel rooms.”
The producers allegedly “regularly refused timely food and water to the actors during filming,” including while they were in the hotel. The lawsuit also alleges that the production “ordered hotel staff not to serve food to any member of the cast who asked them for food because of starvation.”
The lawsuit alleges: “The defendants were encouraged to drink alcohol throughout the day, and were forced to consume an unlimited amount of alcohol without regular or meaningful access to adequate food and water to relieve their inescapable drunkenness.”
The contents were afraid to leave before filming was complete, as they were told they would be required to pay $50,000 in liquidated damages if they attempted to breach their contracts, according to the lawsuit.
Payton noted that “while that’s 50 times what some cast members might earn during their entire tenure, this certainly has the potential to instill fear in the cast and enable production to exercise more control.”
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