By In the wake of the release of Mike Flanagan’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” series, much of the talk surrounding the show’s troubled production has fallen away and praise has been focused on the end product.
The production saw Bruce Greenwood take over the lead role of Roderick Usher from Frank Langella after Langella was let go following an investigation into alleged misconduct on set.
Langella’s dismissal came partway through production, leading to Greenwood reshooting scenes involving Roderick Usher. Greenwood is a familiar face of the Flanagan stable following roles in “Gerald’s Game” and “Doctor Sleep”.
Nearly two years since the switch out and months after the show went to air, co-star Kate Siegel reflected on the infamous recasting in a recent interview with WFPK’s Kyle Meredith. She spoke about how things went down:
It was heartbreaking. It was overwhelming, heartbreaking and disappointing, and people were hurt. I was tangentially – I wasn’t involved in any of the actual HR stuff, but hearing about it, knowing that cast members felt sad and uncomfortable and taken advantage of by [the] other member of the cast, it was just devastating because Mike has spent so much time building an amazing set life and experience and family, and to know that one person can come in and just f— that s— up made me furious.
Siegel goes on to highly praise Greenwood for coming in and taking over the role, before explaining just how extensively they had to reshoot the mini-series:
“People who are correctly praising Bruce need to remember that every single scene that Bruce shot that wasn’t sitting down across from Carl Lumbly was an emergency reshoot. We redid almost all of his stuff. It’s amazing what he did.
I think when Bruce came, there was palpable relief from everybody, because we had a scene partner, we had somebody who we respected and respected us, and a family member back.
I think it just, for me, solidified that feeling of you don’t need to be tortured to be an artist. You can be a good person and show up and do your job, even if you’re playing somebody extreme, even if you are in extreme situations, you are capable – anybody’s capable – of being sane, pleasant and professional on set.”
Siegel is also a Flanagan regular alongside the likes of Carla Gugino and Rahul Kohli, whilst others like Mark Hamill and Paola Nunez were newcomers to the stable with ‘Usher’ which is available in full on Netflix.
The post “House of Usher” Star Reflects On Controversy appeared first on Dark Horizons.
