Netflix's new series, The Fall of the House of Usher, had to remove its controversial leading star during filming due to criminal accusations.
The new series, based on Edgar Allan Poe's iconic short story from 1839, was recently released on Netflix.
It follows Carla Gugino as Verna and Bruce Greenwood as Roderick Usher. The series is loosely based on the original story and also includes story elements and references to other Poe stories like The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart.
House of Usher was created and developed by director Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep).
Netflix's House of Usher Removes Controversial Actor
As reported by Entertainment Weekly in April 2022, Bruce Greenwood replaced Frank Langella as Roderick Usher following reports of misconduct on the set of The Fall of the House of Usher.
The scenes of Langella having to be removed was a significant bump in the road during production, as he portrayed one of the main characters in the series and it had already been filming for over two months.
Langella was forced to exit House of Usher after he was accused of sexual harassment, including making inappropriate comments on set to a female costar.
All his scenes were removed and then reshot with Greenwood, putting a strain on the entire cast and crew.
House of Usher star Kate Siegel (who plays Camille L'Espanaye) confirmed this on X (formerly Twitter).
Siegel responded with three bullseye emojis to filmmaker Brian Duffield's post stating that every of Greenwood as Roderick in the series was "a f***ing emergency reshoot:"
Breaking out into hives remembering that every shot of Greenwood in THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER was a f***ing emergency reshoot.
As Deadline reported, this necessary switch was made halfway through shooting the series.
Other Projects Effected by Controversial Actors Exiting
In late October 2017, actor Kevin Spacey faced multiple sexual misconduct allegations.
As a result, the premiere of All the Money in the World was canceled. The film's Academy Awards campaign (which was initially focused on Spacey's role) had to be reworked. The next month, it was revealed that the film required reshoots to replace Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer in the role of J. Paul Getty.
More recently, Armie Hammer's role was removed from Next Goal Wins, a Taika Waititi film starring Michael Fassbender releasing later this year.
Will Arnett replaced Hammer, and the role was expanded once the new actor joined the project. He had to reshoot all of the previously filmed scenes with that character.
Clearly, flexibility is important for studios, especially when an actor in a leading role is being accused of a serious misdemeanor.
Despite this unfortunate adjustment that needed to the made, House of Usher has a Certified Fresh 90% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
All eight episodes of The Fall of the House of Usher are streaming now on Netflix.
