Cast & Crew Members Break Silence On Frank Langella's Misconduct Allegations

Actor Frank Langella is still making headlines due to allegations of misconduct.

The veteran actor was fired from Netflix’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” after complaints of “unacceptable behavior.” The Oscar-nominated actor later slammed his firing in an op-ed published by Deadline, where he declared himself a victim of cancel culture and called his firing “not American.”

Deadline has since interviewed numerous people close to or currently working on the production of the Netflix horror series to find out the real story regarding his dismissal from the set.

Deadline reported that one word that was “consistently used by virtually everyone when described Lagnella’s behavior was ‘toxic.’” He allegedly made “crass” jokes on set that made “virtually everyone” on set uncomfortable.

One person involved with the series claimed, “There was a general sense of toxicity that followed him around. A lot of the cast and crew were very uncomfortable around Frank from the beginning.”

Langella claimed in his op-ed that there was only one incident that led to his dismissal: when a young actress complained that he touched her long during an intimate scene that had not been vetted by an intimacy coordinator.

However, sources told Deadline that there were “more than a dozen incidents and accusations over the course of several weeks.” In his op-ed, Langella listed the accusations as he saw them, writing, “some of the allegations: 1. ‘He told an off-color joke.’ 2. ‘Sometimes he called me ‘baby’ or ‘honey.’ 3. ‘He’d give me a hug or touch my shoulder.’”

However, sources were quick to say that some of these incidents happened during the very first week of production.

One person involved in the show said, “There were issues out of the gate with very inappropriate comments, some of which were incredibly sexual in nature, others that were graphic and misogynistic.” They added that Langella’s comments were “not jokes but shocking to pretty much anyone within earshot.”

Multiple sources corroborated claims that Langella had been “saying things randomly or loudly that were not scripted” during rehearsals. One scene reportedly “involved a discussion about a character that had gone to the bar.”

An eyewitness told Deadline: “Frank added during the blocking, ‘And then she took [off] all her clothes and f---ed the whole bar in front of the whole crew.’ No one laughed. There was no joke to set it up, it was just a thing he said.”

One character was undergoing body makeup to make it appear as though they were badly burnt. Langella allegedly asked them if the fire “burnt your d---?” The source said that the comment “was grossly inappropriate.”

He reportedly told crude sex jokes on set and reportedly “asked cast members about their sexual experiences.” Another added that Langella allegedly “spoke graphically about his own sexual history to many people even as they were trying to get out of those conversations.”

Sources said that producers and Netflix tried to curtail the behavior early on in the production, which Langella seemed to allude to in his op-ed, when he said a producer told him, “You can’t joke. You can’t compliment. You can’t touch.”

Multiple sources told the outlet that there were three separate allegations of inappropriate touching.

One source said, “They were not necessarily sexual scenes, but they were intimate in their own way; some were intimate familial.” Another source added, “Actors would request sometimes that additional people be on set with them if they would share a scene with him, including people who requested an intimacy coordinator even if a scene did not seem too intimate; there was [a] sense of distrust and boundaries violation.”

In another “very upsetting” incident, a crew member reported that “non-sexual physical contact was made with a makeup artist where he smacked them out of the way.”

Another source said that, after Langella was let go from the show, “there was a profound relief bordering on jubilation among cast and crew.”

As Deadline previously reported, the role has been recast with Bruce Greenwood as Roderick Usher and all of Langella’s scenes will be refilmed. The show has resumed production and it is possible that “The Fall of the House of Usher” will be available to stream on Netflix in 2023.