I can’t tell you if the joke was funny or not — I didn’t hear it. I can’t tell you if there were shocked gasps on the set when Frank Langella told it — I wasn’t there. But I can tell you that the punchline was a real doozy.
It went something like this: “You’re fired.”
But more on what happened last month during the filming of Netflix’s adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” a bit later. How Langella’s behavior on the set — not just telling that bawdy zinger but also touching an actress’ leg during the filming of a love scene — led to the 84-year-old Oscar-nominated actor getting canned from the series. And how he’s fighting back in the press, posting an open letter defending his actions, positioning himself as “collateral damage,” a victim of “cancel culture” run amok in Hollywood.
First, though, let’s catch up with a couple of other men of a certain age who’ve recently landed in hot water — like 71-year-old Bill Murray, who last month got tossed from the set of “Being Mortal,” Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut, after complaints of “inappropriate behavior,” which reportedly included teasing female co-stars, getting flirtatiously “touchy” and pulling on at least one actress’ ponytail.
There’s also the case of former child star Fred Savage, who is only 45 but who started acting when he was 11, giving him 34 years in the business. Last week, Savage got fired as executive producer and director of “The Wonder Years,” ABC’s reboot of the 1980s show that first made him a star. The allegations this time were of “inappropriate conduct” reportedly involving “verbal outbursts.”
It’s the latest example of Hollywood’s zero tolerance policy on TV and film sets — which is either a refreshing comeuppance after years of dudes behaving badly on soundstages or a new era of tyrannical repression that makes it all but impossible for creatives to create, depending on which side of the woke fence you’re on.
What’s interesting about these cases is that each of the three men involved has responded to their dismissals in completely different ways. Savage, who has a history of running into trouble going back to his teenage years (when a female co-star on “Wonder Years” accused him and another actor of sexual harassment; ABC at the time determined there was no basis for the claims), has so far maintained radio silence in the initial days since his termination. It’s a classic crisis management strategy — hunker down until the storm passes.
Murray, on the other hand, went another route, apologizing — without actually saying the words “I’m sorry” — during an interview in Omaha at the Berkshire Hathaway investor meeting in late April (turns out he’s a shareholder). “It’s been quite an education for me, I’ve been doing not much else but thinking about it for the last week or two,” he told CNBC. “The world is different than it was when I was a little kid. You know, what I always thought was funny as a little kid isn’t necessarily the same as what’s funny now. Things change and times change, so it’s important for me to figure it out… That’s a really sad puppy, that can’t learn anymore. I don’t want to be that sad dog.”
Given Murray’s decades-long reputation as an on-the-set rabble-rouser — this is the guy who exchanged physical blows with Chevy Chase backstage on “SNL,” who famously hurled insults at Lucy Liu while shooting “Charlie’s Angels” — it does seem a little odd that getting called out for some teasing and ponytail-pulling would miraculously result in the sudden raising of his consciousness. But whatever. His game plan is contrition. Another classic strategy.