The series of sexual misconduct allegations made against Chris D’Elia earlier this year appear to have cost him at least one role he’d already been given. According to reports, D’Elia has been axed from Zack Snyder’s Netflix zombie comedy film Army Of The Dead.
It’s part of the considerable fallout for D’Elia and his partnership with Netflix, which was to include a show on the streaming service where he was supposed to play the lead. According to IndieWire, D’Elia will be removed from the zombie comedy through reshoots, with fellow comedian Tig Notaro replacing him in the role.
The casting switch-up arrives after a dramatic few months for comic actor D’Elia, who faced sexual-misconduct allegations that spurred representatives from CAA, WME, and 3 Arts Entertainment to drop him as a client. Netflix also canceled a planned show featuring D’Elia in the lead. The news of Notaro replacing D’Elia was originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Netflix confirmed the news to IndieWire, and said that reshoots will begin soon.
As IndieWire noted, the movie was already in post-production when the coronavirus pandemic hit and effectively shut Hollywood down, and though it was unclear when reshoots would happen it will be done in a similar manner that Hollywood has used to replace actors in similar situations.
Notaro will reshoot scenes with an acting partner against a green screen, with CGI used to insert her into the film. This is similar to Ridley Scott’s 2017 “All the Money in the World,” in which Christopher Plummer (going on to earn an Academy Award nomination) had to step in for Kevin Spacey, who was yanked from the movie in post amid his own sexual-misconduct scandals.
D’Elia had an existing relationship with Netflix that now seems in serious doubt. In 2019 he played a comedian in Season 2 of You, the Lifetime show that found a second life on the streaming service. As many noted when the serious allegations against him came out, he (spoilers) played a comedian who secretly was preying on young women.
[via IndieWire]