"I was playing the leading role of Roderick Usher in Edgar Allan Poe’s classic The Fall of the House of Usher, modernized as an eight-episode series for Netflix. It is a glorious role, and I had come to regard it as, most likely, my last hurrah... On March 25 of this year, I was performing a love scene with the actress playing my young wife. Both of us were fully clothed. I was sitting on a couch, she was standing in front of me. The director called 'cut.' 'He touched my leg,' said the actress. 'That was not in the blocking.' She then turned and walked off the set, followed by the director and the intimacy coordinator.... [Someone from Human Resources contacted him a week later and said] 'Before the love scene began on March 25... our intimacy coordinator suggested where you both should put your hands. It has been brought to our attention that you said, "This is absurd!"' 'Yes,' I said, 'I did. And I still think so.' It was a love scene on camera. Legislating the placement of hands, to my mind, is ludicrous. It undermines instinct and spontaneity. Toward 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... Intention is not our concern. Netflix deals only with impact.'"
Writes Frank Langella in "Fired By Netflix, Frank Langella Refutes Allegations Of 'Unacceptable Behavior'" (Deadline). Langella is 84 years old.
Posts
92 comments:
He should have asked first. "Do you want to fuck?" The guy who said that also said "I get my face slapped a lot but I get fucked a lot, too."
An acted kiss is not a kiss. It used to be that it was felt that that didn't extend to sexual intercourse, but that may no longer be true. Leg touching is pretty far off the traditional scales of controversy as bad behavior.
Veep character, on being informed that VP Selina had been groped by the husband of the Swedish Prime Minister, "Up in the mountains or down in the valley?" No mention of leg in the joke.
Intimacy Coordinator is a great euphemism for Pimp
I hope she hated him already and this was more like "Fuck it, I'm not doing this. I can't have this creep touching me."
If not, then this is insane.
I am guessing this "actress" will be out vandalizing churches or supporting those activities.
I am also guessing in 30 years she will be alone with cats and childless.
Lots of"meaningful" sex and maybe some abortions too.
And it is Misogynist to make fun of these people too.
BLATANT MISOGYNY from Achilles.
There is a disease on our society.
A love scene at 84? Doesn't seem very belivable. As for his "Young wife", how old was she, 65?
No offense to the man, but can 80 year olds get off the fucking stage and let younger people have a chance? In business, entertainment, law, politics, we have these people over 75 who simply will NOT retire. They'll keep their boney old fingers on their power and position until they die.
That fucking McCain was a good example. In 2018, he was back in Arz, unable to do his job as a US Senator, but he kept the position because he "wanted to die a Senator", as if the people of Arz didn't deserve a Senator who could actully do the Goddamn Job.
Me Too!
Believe all women (are childish).
Tough titties, Frankie. Your last hurrah brought to you by a woke twenty- or thirty-something.
It is absurd. What, should love scenes only be cast with soy boys?
The actress should never work in this town again. And Netflix is schizoid.
At will employment is a bitch, isn't it?
Seems like his employer and colleagues asked for one thing and he decided to ignore them. Bad decision.
Why do I think that he was set-up, and Netflix was trying to break the contract?
I'm amazed by the amount of content being produced today. I have to believe that most of it won't sell.
There is no more straight-to-DVD market at the grocery store. You can no longer bundle your clinker movies with your blockbusters, sell it to a large supermarket chain, and still manage a profit. The economics of stinker movies has changed.
Of course, this is Langella's side of the story. Is he known to be a creep? Is it standard to have an "intimacy coordinator" on sets? Is there a "slap coordinator" on Will Smith movies?
These don’t involve a bunch of intimate scenes, but I do wonder if they would have happened if the actor was locked into specific motions.
50 Famous Movie Lines That Were Ad-libbed
https://bestlifeonline.com/famous-movie-lines-improvised/
Langella never recovered his mojo after experiencing Whoopi Goldberg a few decades back.
A little known fact.
Imagine if someone ad-libs in a fight scene, or pointing a gun at someone “Mr. Baldwin was supposed to point it at my knee, but he pointed it at my head!” Battery and ADW charges could ensue (especially with a “diverse” cast).
"He touched my leg...'"
Was it a glancing touch of the calf, or a meaty pawing of the Thigh Gap?
Without that information I choose to withhold judgement.
I also need to know how hot the actress was. For context.
I am Laslo.
Young actress disgusted by elderly co-star's groping, gets him fired.
Seems like a tough "last hurrah" for Langella, but the upside is that he'll be the obvious choice to play Joe Biden in a future biopic.
He says, she says. But it also sounds like a question of how powerful is the culture of scripting love scenes. I had heard that (some?) actresses very carefully write into their contracts and such exactly what they can be required to do.
Mark Twain and GHW Bush and dementia Joe Biden all got "handsy" with young females in their dotage, as documented by family and friends and pics and vids.
Frank Langella does not seem to be doing that sort of groping here, though, so best of luck to him.
Pity his role in LOTR didn't include the ending Saruman received in the books.
Intimacy Coordinator.
Sensitivity Reader.
These are jobs now. These are people who have your career in their hands.
Whoever the actress is (I'm not bothering to look it up), she's going to have a short career if actors playing scenes with her don't feel they can suddenly change course--like suddenly shouting at her (character) without her feeling violated and complaining.
This is insane. Langella's version of the events is entirely credible. The man's been in the business for decades. If this represents the new rules, Netflix and the biz in general are committing suicide. I'll help with a small push by canceling my account. I'd been looking for a compelling reason to do so anyway.
Who's the actress? I'm assuming Carla Gugino.
"No offense to the man, but can 80 year olds get off the fucking stage and let younger people have a chance?"
What a stupid take.
"An acted kiss is not a kiss."
Is that like the use/mention dichotomy?
"Pity his role in LOTR didn't include the ending Saruman received in the books."
Who wants to tell him?
"Pity his role in LOTR didn't include the ending Saruman received in the books."
That was Christopher Lee, not this guy.
"A love scene at 84? Doesn't seem very belivable. As for his "Young wife", how old was she, 65?"
I don't recall the story, but if he is credibly playing the man to whom she is married, then the disparity in their ages is part of the story.
In any case, if she is willing to play a "love scene", presumably she would be willing to play a "sex scene" as well. Except, it would have to be in the contract, and she'd want to get paid more. But Netflix didn't think her tits and ass would sell that much advertising, so the contract didn't include that.
It would seem to be a reprise of the old joke;
"Would you sleep with me for a million pounds?"
"Well, I suppose I might."
"Then would you sleep with me for ten pounds?"
"What kind of woman do you take me for?!"
"We've already settled that. Now we're just haggling about price."
From 1900 until about 2016 Hollywood hiring relied on the casting couch. Every woman on screen either participated or was routinely asked to participate. Many, many, many movie stars slept their way to the top. Every classic film was produced in that era.
Starting around 2016 Hollywood got woke, spontaneously recreated the Hays Code of morality rules from 1934 to 1968, and creatively went broke. Wokeness involves exaggerated anxieties and puerile notions of morality and order, but it's ethically better than what came before. [Egad!] If Hollywood had focused on morality from 1969 to 2015 I might care.
But, no one cares about Langella, Netflix, or the young actress for more than a second. They are all relics of a bygone era. Let them fade away.
If an actor takes the stage in the forest with no one there to see, does that actor continue to exist?
"Dropped Names: Famous Men And Women As I Knew Them"
by Frank Langella
is published by Harper and available from amazon.co.uk for £14.44 from April 5.
Oh....he has a book to promote as well.
Ummm, mikee, Langella wasn't in LOTR. If you're talking about Saruman, that was Christopher Lee.
And I'm not aware of Mark Twain getting "handsy" with young females. He befriended a number of young girls, one of whom left a loving memoir about the time she spent with him.
Nor anything about GHW Bush, although the media loved talking about his drunk driving arrest.
He should just stand there, arms hidden, "intimacy coordinator" operating prosthetic arms a la muppets.
It hard to know if he's a victim of the trip wire sensitivity we're plagued by now, or a dirty old man getting his kicks by going beyond what was agreed to in a scene. I'm suspicious of the latter when he writes; Legislating the placement of hands, to my mind, is ludicrous. It undermines instinct and spontaneity. .
Well instinct and spontaneity has gotten many a man into well deserved trouble.
Let's assume that he's a creepy old fart and that he took advantage of the opportunity to paw some fine leg. And let's assume further that the leg is attached to some woman who thinks he is repulsive, but she did the scene to take one for the team....and to get paid. Even assuming all that, I cannot understand the anger and the viciousness that would animate her response. The women I know and admire would just look him in the eye, smile brilliantly, and tell him he's a creepy old fart and to keep his bony paws to himself.
This eagerness to destroy someone is unfathomable, the Weinsteins and Epsteins notwithstanding.
- Krumhorn
"intimacy coordinator"?!
That is a term that I am unfamiliar with. I will have to update my newspeak dictionary.
How would "Body Heat" have turned out if there were regulations on hand placement?
When William Hurt threw that chair through the window, WOW!
If it happened in a lesbian love scene she would not have dared to open her mouth.
Nevertheless, I certainly don't fault the actress for making the complaint if it was not within what was planned. The upcoming generation of actresses are between a rock and a hard place, devalued by the limitations the new orthodoxy demands.
There seems to be a lot of petard-hoisting subtext in Althouse's posts today. I don't know if that's intentional or just the inevitable by-product of unexamined ideologies.
Amber Heard is not unique in the new Hollywood generation.
It's a false flag.
The real complaint is all the virgins' blood he's been drinking to stay so spry at 84.
I don't want to watch an 84yo have sex with anyone, simulated or otherwise.
Oh, mikee, no. That was Christopher Lee.
Shouldn't the Director be coordinating intimacy? Isn't that why they get paid?
Netflix? Netflix the depraved? Unacceptable behavior? From 84-year old Frank Langella? Intimacy coordinator?
Bwahahahaha!!
Despite near-constant recommendations from certain of my friends, I have never been interested in subscribing to Netflix, or as it’s referred to in my house, Obama TV. This latest news flash only serves to convince me I’ve been correct to avoid it. Good times.
’Sometimes he called me baby or honey.’
Damn! His actions are way worse than I thought. Way worse!! I hope Netflix had a trauma counselor on set…
Absurdity upon absurdity.
So they have #MeToo rules on set now? Then why does Hollywood - in EVERY new TV show or movie - sexually harass and assault their viewers with gratuitous and more graphic near porn?
How about they fire the writers, directors and producers who even put that scene in the show?
This reminds me of a biography I did that involved a couple with both physical and developmental disabilities. Their residental staff discussed facillitating "intimacy" from behind suspended blankets etc.
You're welcome.
Whatever the merits or demerits of her case could she not have negotiated a more amicable solution? Sounds like she nuked him for a minor transgression.....Old men sometimes have hand trouble. I read the Chernow bio of Rockefeller. He was faithful to his wife and went to church every Sunday, but, in his dotage, he was a notorious fanny pincher....I guess the old man exemption for minor offenses no longer exists. I'm an old man. Recently an attractive x-ray tech was close enough for me to smell her perfume while she leaned over to position me. I behaved myself, but, jeez, it never ends.
Langella's been replaced by Bruce Greenwood, at least according to imdb. Why didn't Netflix cast a man 20 years younger to begin with? I know it's Poe, but ick. I don't want to see Langella paw anyone, in character or not.
At 84 the love interest is that the woman be fun to be with, and is finally what should have been the priority before that had men not been wired differently. That must be in De Senectute, an alignment of your real interests with your perceived interests when you get old.
It’s not exactly Maria Schneider and the butter, is it?
Bill Peschel said...
Ummm, mikee, Langella wasn't in LOTR. If you're talking about Saruman, that was Christopher Lee.
...
Nor anything about GHW Bush, although the media loved talking about his drunk driving arrest.
Before complaining about misspellings, check your post for typos.
As far as I can tell it was George W Bush with the DUI, not his father (though DuckGo did find a site that confusingly used both sets of initials but was talking about W)
The 84 year old man has been charged with assault with a dead weapon.
The solution to the humiliation suffered by the actress is plain.
Every male actor should refuse to do any scene with her. Thus her virtue shall be preserved.
The groomers at Netflix suddenly develop scruples. (Cuties)
Blogger madAsHell said...
Why do I think that he was set-up, and Netflix was trying to break the contract?
Maybe because their stock has fallen out of bed ?
He dated both Barbara Walters AND Whoopie Goldberg. He gets around.
Frank Langella was/is the American Christopher Lee. He has more versatility and hasn't been pigeon-holed as a horror actor, though.
Partnership with the Whoopie Couch? He should know better.
If IMDB is to be believed, the actress playing his "young" wife is 72. Mary McDonnell. Maybe she did not want any physical contact and made that clear before-hand.
While reading, 'intimacy coordinator' I was thinking how ridiculous that sounds. 'Intimacy wrangler' could work just as well.
Isn't it interesting that the accusing actress, whose name has already been published in connection with the story, now has the privilege and enjoyment of her privacy, as her name has been redacted in later stories and isn't even quoted in this one? If I were Langella, I wouldn't hesitate to put it in. Why not? It's no secret and it's high time the Woke Executioners share the light under the microscope and take responsibility for their actions, including open inquiry and scorn. He's not coming across as a creep, here, and I've never heard any rumors to that effect, either. Wokeism only exists because we won't brace it and grab it by the lapels and give it a good shake.
Langella's been replaced by Bruce Greenwood, at least according to imdb.
Clever. Chicks don't want to get groped by Nixon. They might not object as much to being groped by Kennedy.
When he says "young wife" is he referring to Carla Gugino or Mary McDonnell, who are probably quite professional, or to some actress still younger, maybe 60 years younger than Frank --somebody who should never have been paired with him?
Langella got his screen start over fifty years ago in Diary of a Mad Housewife, which was a topic here a few months back. His theater career goes back to the early Sixties.
I suppose if I were an actor under today's circumstances, I would demand an "intimacy coordinator," if only for my own legal protection.
Poe could do justice to this.
In 1977 I went to the Broadway revival of "Dracula" which featured Frank Langella in the title role. He struck me as kinda creepy so I totally get this.
Someone at Netflix needs to be slapped, and many others fired, but it's not Langella.
These idiots paid Obama as much as $300 million for something vague and nebulous. And it was Randomhouse that shelled Lord Zero and his baggage a cool $65 million advance for their memoirs, which to my knowledge haven't yet appeared, but that was just delayed payments for favored treatment from every enemy this nation has. This may be the case with the Netflix bucks as well. In any case, the stakeholders ought to be preparing to drive those stakes through the hearts of every salary-earner working for Netflix, but they're mostly Red Chinese and probably delighted with the social damage Netfux does with every show they produced.
"He dated both Barbara Walters AND Whoopie Goldberg. He gets around."
That is amazing! I never knew Langella was blind and deaf.
Carla Gugino is a real pro, has been around for a long time (she’s 50), and has played many sexy roles in her long career. Frank did something. Whether it was truly offensive we don’t know, but it is extremely unlikely that Carla is a snowflake. But, Roger Ailes probably thought his creepy come-ons were OK too. The producer warned him.
I guess I am just as confused as hell. There is no young wife in The Fall of the House of Usher. There is Usher, his sister Madeline who dies fairly early on, and the narrator? Is this just a different story borrowing the name? Because of course every hack in the modern world thinks they can write a better story than Edgar Allen Poe, or JRR Tolkien, or Jane Austen, or Nathaniel Hawthorne, or Edgar Burroughs, or whoever else has managed to stay in print for centuries, or maybe only decades.
Either way, sounds like someone took liberties with the story, and the biggest story is that some no name actress is offended by something. What EXACTLY happened. If the old coot grabbed her leg, fire his ass. But if he touched her leg to stop her so he could discuss the scene with her, then she really fucked her career. He is 84, his career is over anyway. But unless he did something egregious, this is going to hurt her a lot more than it does him. What man in his right mind would agree to be in a scene with her now?
McDonnell plays Usher’s twin sister.
On the same day I saw the announcement they had hired Obama, I got a notice of a $2-3/mont price increase. On that same day I canceled Netflix.
Last August I got a new cell plan from t-mobile that cut my bill in half. It included Netflix as a freebie.
I probably watch 5-10 prime videos free and paid as I do Netflix. I do find a few videos free on Netflix that prime wants me to pay for though.
Prime wanted $3 to watch bill Murray in st Vincent the other night. Netflix has it free. Perhaps Murray's best film. Though I really like The Razors Edge.
John LGKTQ Henry
The Fall of the House of Usher is a short story with 3 characters- all of them old. The Netflix show is a mini-series with 8 episodes and a large cast. I'm thinking they just grabbed Poe's name and his title and wrote their own story. In the original story the female is twin sister to to the Frank Langella character. There are hints they may have enjoyed an incestuous relationship at one time, but the brother has buried his sister alive in the family vault. Not easy to write a scene that would lead to his being a lecher. I didn't comment on this post earlier because I thought I was misremembering the story, but I'm not.
As far as I know, Roderick Usher didn't have a wife, young or otherwise.
He did, however, bury his twin sister alive.
Poe is hard to read and harder to understand.
One of the few big plays I've seen in NYC is "Amadeus" with Langella. He was great.
Question; if it was a fight scene; would it be ok if he landed a punch on her?
His side of the story makes it seem absurd, but his artistic license doesn't give him carte blanche to her body because it is a love making scene. He was told what was acceptable, he disagreed, he doesn't deny going beyond what he was told to do, and he was fired. Johnny Depp's apparent success won't help him.
As a defense, Baldwin should have said that if he had only acted like a he was shooting someone he would be undermining instinct and spontaneity.
Likewise, Weinstein could say that he needed to assault women so he could help them expand their instinct and spontaneity re acting roles.
P.S., why does Althouse use the “Cancel Culture” tag? Are we sure that opposition to geezer men groping/shooting/assaulting is the same thing as the stuff that folks colloquially define as “Cancel Culture”? I’ve assumed that “Cancel Culture” is bad, but if it means disgusting old men need to conform w/ their agreements to not fondle women, maybe “Cancel Culture” is an overdue good thing. IMHO.
I like Sean Connery's approach the best:
'Before every sex scene I say to the woman, 'I'm sorry if I get aroused and I'm sorry if I don't.'
Christopher B: Thank you for the correction, in which you are partially correct.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ghw+bush+groper&oq=ghw+bush+groper&aqs=chrome..69i57.9711j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Dracula didn't know Wormtongue, that was Renfrew doing his bidding, but Han Solo did the Kessel run in fewer parsecs than any captain in Star Fleet ever could. And my GHW Bush elderly groping account is accurate. Sad, but accurate. Twain and Biden, too.
wendybar said...
He dated both Barbara Walters AND Whoopie Goldberg. He gets around.
***********
I hope he didn't put his hand on Whoopi's.......
.... shudder...ick....can't go there.
Kate said...
Langella's been replaced by Bruce Greenwood, at least according to imdb.
Hmmmm! Makes me wonder if the producers just wanted to get rid of Langella. He and Greenwood are not really a 1 for 1 switch. Not like Langella switched with Christopher Lee would be (Yes, I know he's dead and I'm not picking on mikee, I can see how people could confuse the two.).
new job opening announced >>>
want intimacy co-ordination for /camel and tent/ -
must be able to curate how far is nose enough
Seeing both Depp and Langella in the news, I have to recommend a a movie they both appear in:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142688/
"The Ninth Gate"
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2649817369/?playlistId=tt0142688&ref_=tt_ov_vid
It involves an old Tarot book that offers clues as to how to invoke Satan and his powers.
Depp is an antiquarian book dealer (as I used to be)
Langella is a customer seeking that book....of course.
Some hot babe poses as Satan, and fucks Depp's brains out trying to figure out what he knows.
What's not to love?
My question: what is Netflix doing remaking The Fall of the house of Usher? It's Poe, sure, but it's not really popular Poe, although I suppose it's the only Poe you can stretch into a full "season" of shows.
The main thing is, there are no capes or mutants or twerking twelve year olds, which tends to be Netflix's stock in trade. Is this an attempt at Art (using art that has been in the public domain for a century, so it can be done cheaply)?
I'm thinking if you want to do Poe, do an anthology series of the more popular short stories. The Cask of Amontillado could stretch into an hour. So could The Telltale Heart. But The Fall of the House of Usher strikes me as casting pearls before swine. Who's the audience? Does anyone younger than fifty even know who Poe is anymore?
If you go to Carla Gugino’s wikipedia page, she is shown to be in production with “The Fall of the House of Usher” with no role Someone is hiding something.
The question of does anyone know who Poe is? He is still on the AP English classes. My granddaughter was studying The Raven, and was terribly impressed I could toss of the first few stanzas casually over the phone with her.
To turn a story into an eight episode series they have to do a lot of padding. We're at the point where everything has been used so often that one can't assume that a new version of a canonical tale will be anything like the original. The Haunting of Hill House series was quite good, but nothing like the original. The sequel, The Haunting of Bly Manor was a sloppy rip-off of "The Turn of the Screw" and was awful.
There are a fair number of women who are listed as part of the cast of this production, but have no role listed. Since they say, "much younger wife", that could be any of them, given Frank Langella's advanced age. Willa Fitzgerald is in the production and maybe she plays the much younger wife. She played some pretty steamy scenes in "Reacher", but then her co-star was very far from being old and creepy.
I think there are a couple of movies Frank Langella's been in, which have been mentioned here at one time or another. Captain Fantastic (pretty certain) and Robot & Frank (I could be wrong--though I have seen the film)
Now days I would not get near any woman that wears their feelings on their shoulders... just to many weird ones with PMS that day (but then I'm not a biologist... are they really women?)
I'm with others in finding it extremely interesting that the roles each women in the production are playing is being hidden on IMDB. It will be apparent when the show is released (if it ever is)
I thought I might have been the only person in the world who saw "The Ninth Gate." A great cast and premise that, IIRC, basically went nowhere. Maybe I'm mistaken.
Gugino is hot.
I met Mr. Langella socially in the 70's - he had recorded a reading of the Peloponnesian Wars for the dancer Daniel Nagrin who I worked for as a bookkeeper at the time. By the standards of the day he was gentlemanly. He was also beautiful - some men who are very attractive like he was don't get that the rules change when you get really old.
Post a Comment