F. Murray Abraham is apologizing for his behavior that led to his abrupt exit from the Apple TV+ series Mythic Quest.
“This is a sincere and deeply felt apology,” Abraham said in a statement relayed by Rolling Stone writer Cheyenne Roundtree, who first broke the news about the circumstances behind Abraham’s departure. “Though never my intention to offend anyone, I told jokes, nothing more, that upset some of my colleagues and as a result lost a great job with wonderful people.”
According to the Rolling Stone report, the 83-year-old Oscar winner and White Lotus actor was at the center of two alleged incidents at Mythic Quest, the first of which resulted in a warning (to steer clear of one of the series’ female cast members) and the second of which led to his dismissal.
In announcing his exit last April, producer Lionsgate issued this cryptic statement: “F. Murray Abraham will not be returning to Season 3 of Mythic Quest. Beyond that, we do not comment on matters concerning personnel.”
In response to the Rolling Stone piece, Lionsgate said, “We take allegations of misconduct seriously and investigate them thoroughly. As a matter of corporate policy, we do not discuss our personnel actions.”
Maybe it’s just me, but his character had run its course anyway. The screen time that wasn’t used on him in season 3 went to more interesting characters and storylines. Not that I didn’t enjoy what they did with him, but it really felt like his story was all resolved, and especially with the way they decided to write him out when he was let go.
Agreed. Finding out his greatest work was a line-by-line rewrite by Isaac Asimov and he was a middling writer at best (though a great idea man) was all that needed to be said. Him sitting with his nemesis/former friend was a great closing scene on his story. That’s all we needed
I loved the characters’s role in the COVID episode. And though I’m grateful the character didn’t die from covid, I didn’t expect him to survive the pandemic either. A losing him would’ve probably changed the tone of the show for the rest of the characters, so to have his ashes go to space while he played one last surprise after dying of natural causes seemed like a story book end for a bleak period in real life as well.
Hopefully he learned his lesson for future projects because yah it did seem like Season 3 did fine without him. It was probably best for both sides as there is so many characters and storylines it allowed Mythic Quest to give more time to other characters and storylines and F. Murray an opportunity to have a bigger role in other projects like White Lotus.
His character and story surrounding around his families in White Lotus is the mirror reflection from what happened to his firing. What a coincidence!
Yep
I love Mythic Quest, but even Ian and the former testers are considered too old for the Industry the used to work for, so I feel the show lack of mature characters – there’s no one older than 40, let lone 50 – does play against it and its own quest to find an audience.
He’s apologizing but has to throw in “nothing more”?
Well, yes, so people don’t think he groped someone or did something else physical.
The headline that ran here and in other publications three days ago — based on a Rolling Stone report that provided few details — was “F. Murray Abraham Was Allegedly Fired From Mythic Quest for Sexual Misconduct.”
Of course, telling offensive jokes can be a legitimate grounds for firing. But if that’s what he did, there’s a big difference between that and what most people would assume the phrase “sexual misconduct” means.
I think any offense gets lumped in together these days.
What he consider some offhand offensive jokes could be at the expense of others, can feel like sexual harassment to those on the receiving end of the said “jokes” even when he “doesn’t really mean them”. The term “sexual misconduct” could be anything.
“I told jokes, nothing more” – that’s HIS interpretation. TVLine literally posted another article within 24 hours of this one about an actor on BEEF who is trying to play off comments he made about raping women because he enjoyed “the thrill of possibly going to jail” and how he was a “successful rapist” as jokes. We obviously have no idea what Abraham actually said, but just because he categorized it as a “joke” doesn’t mean it wasn’t sexual misconduct.
Oh goodness. I thought this was going to quietly go away, but a lame statement like this may open the old can of worms. Good luck, F. Murray, wish you kept your mouth shut, let’s see if everyone else still does.
The show probably needs the exposure. If it were on broadcast tv, one would conclude the ratings probably wouldn’t justify its production. Since it’s on streaming, one would only conclude the show needs the current exposure to justify its production.
It’s funny how some people are punished for words and others aren’t. And then there are the people that commit actual crimes, yet continue to be employable.
Funny world…
It’s still the typical blackout box.
He’s made his statement. The show has made theirs. There are discrepancies in published versions.
We don’t have a definitive version of the actual events, likely never will. The best we can try to do is read between the lines for a semblance of the truth.
About the first incident, the RS article says he was warned to steer clear of several actresses, not one specific one. Adds a bit more context to the situation.
At his age hecan tell me any kind of joke, dirty or not!