The Disturbing Allegations Against Frank Langella Explained

American actor Frank Langella was fired from his role on Netflix's "The Fall of the House of Usher" due to accusations from the show's production against Langella. The Tony-winning actor was reportedly let go from the project on April 13 after an investigation into his inappropriate conduct, per Deadline. "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a Netflix-original adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe short story by the same name. The mini-series was slated to be starring Mark Hamill, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, and Carl Lumbly.

Known for his portrayal in the titular role of "Dracula" in the 1979 movie, Langella was cast as one of the story's main characters, Roderick Usher. But after the allegations of sexual harassment against Langella were investigated, Netflix fired him and will recast the role. According to Deadline, the scenes previously filmed with Langella will be completely gone from the final edit and instead be re-filmed with the new actor. So what exactly is being alleged?

Frank Langella reportedly acted inappropriately towards co-workers

The allegations that are being made against Frank Langella reportedly took place on set during the filming of "The Fall of the House of Usher." A source from the show told TMZ that there were complaints about Langella over several weeks. The source said that Langella made a joke of sexual nature. He also touched the leg of one of his female co-workers and sarcastically said something along the lines of "Did you like that?"

In 2018, Netflix amended the company's rules for film sets in order to strengthen the protection of employees being subject to sexual harassment, per the Independent. But the streamer is no stranger to having to deal with one of their stars having allegations against them. Kevin Spacey was infamously canned from Netflix's "House of Cards" back in 2017 because of accusations of Spacey's sexual misconduct toward members of the show's staff.

Netflix handled Spacey's firing by completely killing off his character on "House of Cards." For the makers of "The Fall of the House of Usher," it was only a couple of weeks into the filming process when the investigation into Langella's conduct took place, per Deadline. Fortunately, it was early enough in the production schedule that the production team was able to recast the role and salvage the mini-series without Langella.