Candice Patton has played Iris West on The Flash since it began its run in 2014. While it is a dream for most actors and actresses to be on a long-running hit series, Patton is revealing that she wanted to leave the show as early as its second season due to online harassment from fans that she feels The CW didn’t properly protect her from.
During a chat with The Open Up Podcast, Patton explained that she wanted to leave the show “as early as season two” because she felt “severely unhappy” once the online harassment against her hit a fever pitch. The actress would receive a slew of harassing messages from so-called fans and it was not easy for her to take when the show began its run. Patton says that signing on for the show and “changing the way people view the superhero genre and creating spaces for women of color that have never had that” was “a lot of responsibility” that came with “a lot of attention.” Patton said she even felt it was “also a very dangerous place to be in when you’re one of the first and you’re receiving so much backlash from it and there is no help.”
As far as The CW and Warner Bros. were concerned, they basically told Candice Patton “That’s how fans are” and they didn’t really provide her with the protection she felt she needed from companies on their level when it came to the kind of harassment she was receiving during The Flash. She said “there were no support systems” in place at the time and “it was just free range to get abused every single day. There were no social media protocols in place to protect me, they just let all that stuff sit there. It’s just not enough to make me your lead female and say, ‘Look at us, we’re so progressive, we checked the box.’ It’s great, but you’ve put me in the ocean alone with sharks.”
Patton addressed that in order for changes to be made, they had to come from the top. There also needed 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.'” The actress also revealed that even though she wanted to leave early on when things got bad, she not only stayed because of contractual obligations but also because she felt “a huge responsibility” given her fans “loved this character.”
“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. In staying, in going through a lot of that adversity, I’ve learned so much. I’m so much tougher.”
A lot of the fan harassment came courtesy of the fact that Iris West is caucasian in the comics. The fact that this was such a huge bone of contention with fans shows just how toxic some of these fandoms can be but Patton admits that things are “more leveled out now” and there have been more conversations around some of these issues. The actress admits that the next season of The Flash will “likely be my last” and this will allow her to move forward and “break free” from a character identity she’s been “attached to for so long.” After her interview on the podcast was over, Patton took to Instagram to thank them “for creating a safe space for me to talk about things I’ve never really spoken about”
“My sincerest hope is that the industry only continues to get better and more inclusive. I’m deeply optimistic about the future. Despite the trials, I am so grateful for being apart of the journey and hopefully moving the needle, even if it’s just a millimeter. Nobody’s perfect, myself included, so thank you to everyone who has listened with an open heart and mind.”
I think it’s brave of Candice Patton to really speak on this and shine a light on the fan harassment she got during The Flash. There is no denying that some fandoms can be dangerously toxic and they should be called out more. I’m glad she stuck it out and got to a place where she made it necessary to have these kinds of discussions because it will go a long way in protecting the next actress that happens to be in her position.