Daily Stormer The Most Censored Publication in History
Frank Langella is not a household name, but he’s a well-established actor who has been in major films since the 1970s. He was nominated for best actor at the 2008 Academy Award for playing Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon.
The Fall of the House of Usher is not a joke, created and directed by Mike Flanagan, who is probably one of Netflix’s biggest earners. “Netflix Earner” is a complicated concept, but Flanagan just pumps out high-quality, highly rated, popular series at a rapid rate, and he seems to be all in on Netflix at this point. His feature length films have been hit or miss, and Doctor Sleep was a serious miss. I don’t think he’s spoken about his contracts, but the Netflix series Midnight Mass was his last project (and one of the best things ever), and now he’s doing this Edgar Allen Poe adaptation series with another series in preproduction.
So, while it’s weird to abuse an actor, it is actually just insane to tell a director who is one of your top earners he has to reshoot an entire series because of a rumor someone got their leg touched.
Frank Langella claims he has been “canceled” after he was fired from the Netflix series The Fall of the House of Usherlast month. The actor penned an op-ed for Deadline Thursday (May 5) in response to his dismissal from the show, which let him go after Langella was accused of inappropriate behavior on set.
While working on the horror series, Langella was accused of making a sexual joke and touching his female co-star’s leg, then asking, “Did you like that?,” per TMZ. Sources confirmed to Deadline, which first reported the news of Langella’s firing, that such incidents did occur.
To be clear: that is the entirety of the rumor: joke, leg touch, comment.
In his Deadline essay, Langella slammed the accusations against him as “absurd” and claimed he was fired from The Fall of the House of Usher shortly after TMZ broke the story of his sexual harassment investigation.
“That afternoon, I was fired. I was not given a hearing with Netflix,” he wrote. “My request to meet one-on-one with the actress was denied. The directors and the producer stopped answering my emails and phone calls. Within 30 minutes of my firing, a letter went out to cast and crew and a full press release was sent immediately. My representatives and I were given no opportunity to comment or collaborate on the narrative.”
The actor added, “I cannot speak to the intentions of my accuser or Netflix, but the impact on me has been incalculable. I lost a thrilling part, the chance at future earnings and perhaps face a stretch of unemployment. Netflix terminated me after three months of work with only three weeks left to shoot, and I have as yet to be fully remunerated for my services. Most importantly, my reputation has been tarnished.”
He ended his statement by slamming “cancel culture,” which Langella described as “the antithesis of democracy.” He continued, “It inhibits conversation and debate. It limits our ability to listen, mediate, and exchange opposing views. Most tragically, it annihilates moral judgment.”
Langella closed out the op-ed by writing, “This is not fair. This is not just. This is not American.”
Like everything that is happening, it is insane.
Even if he’d been accused of rape, this should be treated differently and there should be an investigation. Of course, if it was rape, there would be a criminal investigation. Touching someone’s leg and making a joke are not crimes.
If he did exactly what he is accused of, what would that even mean? Aren’t women empowered now? Can’t she just laugh and say “sorry gramps, not interested”? What is this power that men have to strike fear into the hearts of women by flirting with them, and how is it possible that women are equal to men if men have this astonishing power over them?
Here’s the thing: women are not getting more powerful, they are just getting more unhinged and aggressive. An adult woman 50 or 500 or 5,000 years ago could respond to an older man “making a pass” at her with a laugh instead of some kind of freakout. It’s certainly not a big deal or something someone should be fired over, and if they’re both single, it’s not even morally wrong. This is just basic human behavior. And it really isn’t even “making a pass,” frankly. Old men – particularly old Italian men – have always flirted with younger girls with no intention to actually have sex with them.
Langella is 84 years old. He’s not trying to have sex with some young skank. If this even happened at all – and I guess it probably did – he’s just an old man having a laugh. You’re going to ruin his life over it? Force the director and the entire crew to reshoot all of the lead actor’s scenes when filming is almost finished?
What’s more: the guy they replaced him with, Bruce Greenwood (who, ironically, is most famous for a role portraying JFK), is not going to be better than Langella, he is going to be worse, and the entire thing is going to be worse due to rushed reshoots.
Edgar Allen Poe deserves better.
I was really looking forward to this show, even though it does have a black person in it. Sir Christopher Lee would have been best as Usher. He’s dead now. But at least he did a reading of it.
