Glambot director breaks silence after being branded 'condescending' in leaked message scandal

Glambot director Cole Walliser has issued an apology for leaked emails he sent that have been torched as 'condescending' and 'unprofessional'.

Filmmaker, director and content creator Walliser, 44, shot to fame in 2016 when he began capturing high-speed videos of celebrities posing on red carpets, which are then slowed down.

But emails he sent in the years to follow have come back to haunt him, with Walliser now receiving heat over his interactions with people interested in booking his services.

In a video posted to his Instagram on Tuesday, Walliser broke his silence over the scandal and acknowledged the tone in his emails was 'dismissive and curt.'

Walliser also addressed allegations of being 'labeled racist', admitting he would 'never intend' to cause the same pain he endured growing up as a person of Chinese descent. 

'I want to talk about some emails that I sent years ago that resurfaced recently,' Walliser told his followers. 'The tone in these emails was dismissive and curt and that is not okay. In 2019, I didn’t have a team around me, it was just myself. I edited every single video. I answered every single email, and I was overwhelmed. But that is not an excuse. Everything lands on me.

'I think the hardest part about all of this is being labeled racist. I’m half Chinese and growing up, issues of identity, race and belonging deeply affected me and I would never intend to inflict that onto anybody else. But I do understand that reading these emails, people could be upset, and assume bias, especially given the frequency at which people of color experience being dismissed, and so I take responsibility for my words, irregardless of what my intent was.'

Walliser, who has directed the Glambot at the Grammys, the Golden Globes, the Emmy Awards and the Academy Awards, also apologized to those who felt slighted by him during their interactions on the red carpet.

'I also want to acknowledge people’s concerns that they were mistreated or felt dismissed or treated less than on the red carpet. Live events move really fast and I would never want someone to come see me and leave feeling that way. But I do understand that it could happen and it did happen and for that I am sorry.

'I’d like to think that I have grown a lot in the past seven years and I always want to treat everybody with respect that they deserve, but clearly more could be done and I can do better. And so that’s a thing that I want to focus on improving and just working towards being better. These are just some thoughts that have been weighing on me that I wanted to share. Thanks for watching.'

Walliser faced social media backlash for his supposed lack of professionalism after a Reddit user uploaded what appeared to be a 2019 email exchange between Walliser and a potential client.

In a series of messages, Yinka Animashaun reached out to book Walliser's services apparently for a wedding but was met with resistance from the filmmaker who stressed that hiring him and the Glambot would be expensive.

'Just so you are aware the Glambot is a camera system and personnel used by a network television station for one of the biggest red carpets of the year,' an email allegedly from Walliser read.

'It is not cheap, if you feel like something like this might be within your budget range, then I am happy to discuss further.'

Ms Animashaun confirmed that the Glambot would be in her budget range, to which Walliser allegedly responded that he didn't believe her response that he was in her budget because he had not yet quoted her a fee and hiring him and his camera crew would cost between $10,000 and $1 million.

In her reply, Mrs Animashaun said that she had assumed the fee would be pricy. She then asked Walliser what the next steps would be to book his services.

'So where would I begin?' she said. 'Through you or is there a website?'

Walliser allegedly wrote: 'Okay it's $300,000 and I'll take a 10% deposit to secure the gear and once I have the deposit I can do a contract.'

Noting his email, Mrs Animashaun confirmed that she will reach out by Monday.

But the message purporting to be from Walliser wrote back saying: 'If you wanted to know how much it costs you just needed to ask, you don't need to pretend you are going to book it.'

The alleged email exchange was met with outrage from fellow Reddit users who branded Walliser 'unprofessional' and 'condescending'. 

'I don't know why he would waste time being condescending instead of sending rates or ignoring,' one said.

'Cole seems like a grifing rude scammer,' another wrote.

A third continued: 'He plucked a number out of thin air, hoping it was out of her price range.'

'He's so unprofessional and condescending like… just send the rates from the first email weirdo,' added a fourth.

'If he's such a huge deal, why on earth is he answering his own emails? Can he not afford booking staff?' a fifth asked.

'Very unprofessional on his part. Yikes,' added another, while a further posted, 'What a clown. Her emails couldn't be more direct and clear.'

In a separate Reddit thread, another user shared a screenshot from an alleged Instagram exchange with Walliser, also from 2019.

'Can we book you for a wedding?' a potential client asked.

Walliser allegedly responded: 'Hey dude. I mean you can but there's a reason Glambot is only at the Oscars, the Grammys and the Golden Globes.'

He concluded the alleged message with five money bags emojis.

Social media users were quick to defend Walliser's response in this alleged second exchange.

'How is this rude?' one asked, while another noted, 'he's giving the person a heads up and it's understandable.'

The resurfaced interactions come after Walliser shut down claims that Jennifer Lopez was 'rude' to him during her Glambot shoot at the Golden Globes last Sunday.

In a video posted online, the singer, 56, turned her back to Walliser has he instructed her on how to get ready for the camera moment,

When he asked Lopez if she knew what position she wanted to do, Lopez didn't reply and instead turned around before posing.

Addressing criticism of Lopez's behavior, he said in a video that he didn't take it personally and stressed it 'didn't feel rude in that moment.'