Glambot director Cole Walliser breaks silence after backlash over ‘dismissive’ emails

Walliser’s Glambot videos have become a fixture on Hollywood red carpets

Cole Walliser — the director behind the popular Glambot videos often seen at award show red carpets — has issued an apology after emails resurfaced of him being dismissive towards a potential client.

Walliser posted a video on his Instagram account Tuesday where he addressed a 2019 email exchange in which a woman named Yinka Animashaun asked about having the Glambot — a camera that captures high-speed videos and then plays them back in slow motion — at her wedding. In a post on X, Animashaun claimed that Walliser suggested she might not be able to afford his services.

“I want to talk about some emails that I sent years ago that resurfaced recently. The tone in these emails was dismissive and curt and that is not OK,” he said in the video. “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.”

As the video continued, Walliser spoke about the backlash he received over the email and “took responsibility” for what he wrote.

“I think the hardest part about all of this is being labelled racist,” he said. “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.”

Cole Walliser, who directs the popular Glambot videos from award shows, has apologized for previously dismissing a potential client in a resurfaced email from 2019 (Getty Images)

“But I do understand that reading these emails, people could be upset, and assume bias, especially given the frequency at which people of color can experience being dismissed, and so I take responsibility for my words, irregardless of what my intent was,” he added.

He added that anyone who felt dismissed on the red carpet had not been intentionally slighted, pointing to the fast pace of award-show press lines.

“Live events move really fast, and I would never want someone to come see me and leave feeling that way,” he said. “But I do understand that it could happen and it did happen, and for that I am sorry.”

Walliser concluded his apology by reflecting on how Glambot has evolved over the past decade.

“I’d like to think that I have grown a lot in the past seven years and I always want to treat everybody with [the] respect that they deserve, but clearly more could be done and I can do better,” he said. “And so that’s a thing that I want to focus on improving and just working towards being better.”

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Earlier this month, a clip of J.Lo posing for Walliser’s high-speed camera went viral, with some viewers criticising her for minimal chitchat and limited eye contact.

However, Walliser later shared a TikTok defending the singer and actor, saying she was just focused on the hectic red carpet environment.