“A great man once said, ‘Everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power.’” So went one of US president Frank Underwood’s bone-chilling bons mots in an early episode of House of Cards. Kevin Spacey, the actor who portrayed him, will now have more time to reflect on how true those words are.
Nearly one year after the first allegations of sexual of abuse were levelled against Spacey, the Netflix drama starts its sixth and final season without him on Friday. It is the first major show to carry on without its central character as a result of revelations arising out of the #MeToo movement. Spacey’s absence is explained by his character’s death, already teased by the show on Twitter with a clip showing Underwood’s grave and the caption: “You should have known”.
With focus re-shifting onto Underwood’s wife Claire, played by Robin Wright, a series that had a malevolent, power-hungry man at its dark heart will be recast as a drama with a strong female lead. “It is art imitating real life: you know that women will triumph over desperately flawed men,” Michael Dobbs, the politician on whose political thriller the series is based, told BBC Radio 4.
Netflix’s approach was signalled soon after allegations against Spacey – some on the House of Cards set itself – first came to light. Netflix and producers MRC acted quickly to shut down work on season six and vowed that there would be no future House of Cards that involved Spacey.
Spacey – not only the star of the show, but its executive producer – was fired, and two episodes of the new season that had already been shot with him were scrapped, at no insignificant cost. It reflected Netflix’s investment in the Golden Globe-winning drama, its first original hit. Chief content officer Ted Sarandos said later that it was important to “bring closure to fans”.
What followed was an intense period of rewriting, and the season was reduced from 13 episodes to eight.
“We didn’t want to be coy about it and we didn’t want to run away from it,” co-showrunner Melissa James Gibson told The Hollywood Reporter. “It would have been a big mistake to in any way pretend that the character didn’t exist or to erase the character somehow.”
Wright admitted in August that House of Cards had come “very, very close” to being axed altogether. “Because of the climate at that time. The air was thick, you know. Harvey Weinstein … People were [saying], ‘We have to shut everything down or otherwise it will look like we are glorifying and honouring this thing that’s dirty.’”
In the past, rapid rewrites to obscure or omit a central character have been forced by untimely death, including Philip Seymour Hoffman’s part in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 and Heath Ledger’s character in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. But today actors are just as likely to be erased over allegations or accusations of sexual abuse as by their unexpected deaths.
Spacey was also promptly replaced by Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott’s All the Money in the World at the behest of the director, who feared a boycott. Later, the BBC’s Agatha Christie adaptation, Ordeal By Innocence, was pushed back from Christmas to Easter for it to be reshot without Ed Westwick after he was accused of rape and sexual assault. Production on season two of the BBC comedy series White Gold, in which he also features, was put on ice. Westwick has always maintained his innocence and prosecutors have said he will not face charges.
It remains to be seen how the fifth and final season of Transparent, slated for next year, will address the departure of Jeffrey Tambor over allegations of sexual misconduct. Though the show was off air when he left in February, it somewhat tarnished the show’s image (and self-image) as one that held itself to higher standards than the rest of Hollywood. As writer and director Jill Soloway wrote of her own hypocrisy in response to the allegations against Tambor: “Yes, believe all victims but – damn it – how could this happen on my show, too?”
While James Franco returned to the HBO drama The Deuce, about the porn industry, after several women accused him of misconduct, the network hired an “intimacy coordinator” to ensure that women felt comfortable on set. “You know, everyone’s an old pro about simulating violence,” said co-creator and executive producer David Simon. “But I don’t think I’m ever going to work without an intimacy coordinator again.”
In June, senior staff at Netflix underwent anti-harassment training as a similar safeguard.
All of the men have denied the allegations made against them. Spacey, in response to a particular allegation by actor Anthony Rapp, said he did not remember the incident but if it did happen, he said, he apologised sincerely.