Frank Langella, who was fired from his lead role in a Netflix miniseries in April after an investigation into misconduct, said on Thursday that his resignation followed a love scene in which the actress who plays his wife accused him of touching her leg — a move that not in writing.
“She then turned and walked off the set, followed by the director and the intimacy coordinator,” Langella wrote in a column for Deadline, about a March 25 incident on the set of “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The series is based on works by Edgar Allan Poe and created by Mike Flanagan.
“I tried to follow but was asked to ‘give her some space’.” I waited about an hour and then was told she wasn’t returning to the set and we were packed,” Langella wrote.
Langella said he and the actress were both dressed during the scene. During the ensuing investigation, he said, a human resources officer told him that the intimacy coordinator suggested where the actors should place their hands during the scene. Langella called the instructions “absurd,” he said.
“It was a love scene on camera,” Langella said. “The legislation on the placement of hands is ridiculous in my opinion. It undermines instinct and spontaneity.” Referring to the human resources officer, Langella wrote: “Towards the end of our conversation, she suggested that I not contact the young lady, the intimacy coordinator or anyone else in the company. ‘We don’t want to risk retaliation,’ she said.
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday evening.
Langella said he was “cancelled” and that the damage to him was “incalculable”, including losing a tense role, coping with a spell of unemployment and suffering a tarnished reputation. These humiliations, he said, are “the real definition of unacceptable behavior.”
“Cancelling culture is the antithesis of democracy,” he said. “It inhibits conversation and debate. It limits our ability to listen, mediate, and exchange opposing points of view. Most tragically, it destroys moral judgment. This is not fair. This is not easy. This is not American.”
The production plans to recast Langella’s role as Roderick, the reclusive patriarch of the Usher family, and re-shoot the scenes he had already appeared in. The series stars Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell and Mark Hamill.
Langella, 84, known for her appearances both on screen and on stage, rose to fame in the title role of the 1979 film “Dracula” after starring as a Count in a Broadway production. He also played President Richard M. Nixon in both the stage and screen versions of “Frost/Nixon,” which earned him an Oscar nomination and a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 2007. Netflix movie “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”
