F. Murray Abraham, AKA Bert Di Grasso in The White Lotus, was booted off one of his hit TV shows after two seperate allegations of sexual misconduct in 2022. Art imitates life, I guess.
Abraham abruptly left Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest in April last year between seasons, under pretty weird circumstances, and production stayed hush as to why. At the time, Lionsgate merely confirmed his departure.
“Beyond that, we do not comment on matters concerning personnel,” the studio said. There was no comment from Abraham.
The Rolling Stone has since reported that there were actually two sexual misconduct complaints against Abraham.
The first incident left Abraham with a warning. He was allegedly told to stay away from some of Mythic Quest‘s female actors, a production source told The Rolling Stone.
The second alleged incident, which was taken to creator and star Rob McElhenney, was what reportedly got Abraham fired and his character killed off.
Lionsgate said it takes “allegations of misconduct seriously and investigate[s] them thoroughly” in a statement on Monday.
“As a matter of corporate policy, we do not discuss our personnel actions.”
The whole thing is even ickier when you realise that Abraham then went on to star as an affable creep in White Lotus.
In fact, the New York Times published a profile of F. Murray Abrahams in December last year which said he was cast in that role because he had a similar “bouyant” and oblivious nature to his sexpest character.
“Bert says a lot of questionable things and has kind of a problematic attitude toward sex and women and relationships,” Mark White, creator of White Lotus, told the publication.
“I just thought it’d be funny to have an actor who also has this kind of buoyancy and a ‘What me worry?’ type of attitude. There’s something very mischievous about Murray, and he could obviously play the villain. But he also has this likable, unsinkable quality to him.”
Yeah, that’s kinda chilling when you consider that most men in Hollywood get away with having sexual misconduct allegations against them because they’re cheerful, likeable guys who are just “cheeky” or whatever. Ugh.
