Actors fall into disgrace overnight. How does Hollywood deal with blacklisted stars?

The distributor of the film “Death on the Nile” had a really big problem when in early 2021, the actor who played one of the leading roles was accused of rape, mental and physical violence, as well as erotic practices with elements of cannibalism. The premiere of the screen adaptation of the cult detective story was postponed several times by the pandemic, and the new scandal meant that it would be postponed again. It was impossible to replace the troublesome actor with someone else and shoot his scenes again.

Filming was completed in 2019, and he starred in so many collective scenes that it would be logistically difficult to arrange nuts. There are simply too many popular and sought-after movie stars in the cast for that to be possible at all. There were also Tom Bateman, four-time Oscar-nominated Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Dawn French, Gal Gadot, Rose Leslie, Emma Mackey, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders and Letitia Wright.

How does Hollywood deal with blacklisted actors?

The police have opened an official investigation into the Armi Hammer case, although the actor has denied the accusations from the very beginning. Nevertheless, he does what he can to repair his image in any way: in May 2021 he checked into a private clinic in Florida, where he underwent treatment for drug and alcohol addiction as well as treatment for sexual problems. Now the press reports that he and his wife are working on a relationship – they eventually have two children together. He really has nothing else to do, because at the beginning of 2021 his career simply collapsed in ruins.

After the outbreak of the scandal, Hammer almost immediately lost the agent who had worked with him so far, and he also lost roles in several major projects. Sam withdrew from the romantic comedy “Shotgun Wedding” starring Jennifer Lopez, he also dropped out of the cast of the behind-the-scenes series of the cult “The Godfather”, Broadway production “The Minuters” or the drama series “Gaslit”. A seven-time Emmy nominee Will Arnett replaces him in Taika Waitity’s new film, Next Goal Wins. The producers, however, argue that the change in the cast took place because Hammer could not participate in the nuts. Hence the decision to shoot again with another actor.

But since Disney could not replace him with anyone in “Death on the Nile”, a special variant of film promotion was decided. First of all, although Hammer plays a significant role in the production, it has been almost completely removed from the new trailers of the detective story. The creators also decided to omit his character when preparing posters promoting the film: and separate posters were given even smaller ones for the plot of the unit. Hammer also absolutely did not participate in press meetings, his participation in the production was absolutely not mentioned.

We pretend it’s not there

This scenario was already used by Disney on the occasion of the premiere of an important project – a new directed by Steven Spielberg “West Side Story” (Let’s not forget that too. This is another pandemic delayed title, plus the embarrassing case of the male lead. The actor is best known from the movie “Baby Driver,” in which he starred with ( interestingly, it was also one of the last pictures with Spacey to go to distribution before it became an absolute non grata presona in the movie industry).

Elgort was accused in July 2020 by a woman of having sexually molested her back in 2014, when she was 17 and he was 20. In response to the accusations, the young actor issued a statement in which he stated that he had a “short, legal and fully consensual” relationship with the person accusing him. What could Disney have done then? His role in West Side Story is far too big to replace him. So it was decided that he would not be involved in the promotion of the film: he did not give any independent interviews, he was always paired with someone else from the cast to distract him and shift the center of gravity to the film itself. Paradoxically, thanks to this, more attention was paid to his screen partner Rachel Zelger. And it is worth appreciating her, because the debutante defeated 30,000 competitors for the role of Maria. As a chronicler, let us also note that her mother is Colombian, and her father has Polish roots. Soon we will also see her in the title role in the new version of “Snow White”.

Just like Disney did with Hammer and Elgrot, he did for the movie “Particles of a Woman” from the end of 2020. The main roles in it were played by Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf. About the same time, the premiere of the production and the scandal involving the actor coincided. In early 2021, his former partner accused him of emotional, psychological and sexual abuse. For this reason, Netflix decided to remove all information about LeBoufa from the press releases about the film, which was also omitted from the Oscar-winning campaign – although his role initially received quite favorable reviews from critics. Vanessa Kirby, in turn, was nominated for an Oscar for her performance, LeBouef only partially denied the accusations.

Play it again, Sam

However, the platform could not use the same maneuver in the case of the film “Gore” about the American writer, playwright, screenwriter and politician Gore Vidal. The lead role was played by none other than Kevin Spacey. “Gore” is a film that is so embarrassing for Netflix that there are scenes in which Vidal makes unwanted promotions to a younger man. As “” reports, the production hit the shelf and it is not known when or if it will ever be distributed.

As we remember, in the case of this actor, various variants of action to minimize damage have already been applied. Before the premiere of All Money in the World in 2017, several men accused him of sexual harassment. It was then that director Ridley Scott and the producers decided to replace him with Christopher Plummer. They preferred to pay extra than show “All the Money in the World” with Speycey. It paid off in that Plummer was nominated for an Oscar for his role as an eccentric billionaire.

Spacey was also cut from the last season of “House of Cards”, which forced the creators to shorten the series from 13 to eight episodes. The actor was sued for this, as a result of which he was to pay the creators 30 million in compensation – he is now trying to appeal against this decision.

We’ll soon be able to see how Mads Mikklesen will do as the Grinewald in the third installment of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. He replaced Johny Depp, who portrayed the sorcerer in the two previous installments of the series. He had a contract to participate in the next installment, but before production could go ahead, his divorce scandal broke out, in which there were mutual accusations of domestic violence. It was then decided that even as a villain, he should not appear in this supposedly family movie.

Be careful who you stop with

This case also cast a shadow on actor Paul Bettany’s career. Because when his colleague Depp sued the British “The Sun” for calling him “the martyr” (he lost), the gentlemen exchanged text messages. And these were read during the trial as evidence: Depp was supposed to write in them that he was fantasizing about killing Amber Heard’s ex-wife. The case also seriously damaged Bettany, who at that time was to promote the movie “Uncle Frank” made for Amazon Studios. To avoid the possibility of someone asking for a high-profile divorce, his interviews around the film were simply canceled. Bettany was very lucky – “Vanda Vision”, a series with his participation, was very liked by viewers and critics, which effectively improved his image. But this case shows well how much the film industry works on the principle of connected vessels.

Commentators in the film industry point out that the Hammer scandal has indirectly affected Emma Mackey, who was also in the cast of “Death on the Nile.” The actress known from the hit series “Sex Education” has long waited for a breakthrough in her career and a project that will guarantee her participation in serious cinema projects. The suspension of such a large premiere with her participation could undoubtedly mean that she was not appreciated in time by other filmmakers. Therefore, many people point out how unfair it is to ‘shelf’ production because of one actor – he loses a lot of other people. So how to fairly separate a work of art from individual artists who, for example, were only part of the project?

Filmmakers try to protect themselves from risk in various ways, but often the damage caused by the scandal cannot be repaired. In an ideal world, of course, the best safeguard against such crises would be to make sure that everyone involved in the work is honest people. However, looking at the stories of many celebrities, you never know who is hiding a corpse in the wardrobe. Even icons of goodness from the last 20 years, such as Mother Teresa and John Paul II, are now controversial. Nobody can feel safe?

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