Robin Wright: House of Cards Was Nearly Canceled After Spacey Firing
House of Cards is about to release its sixth and final season on Netflix after the show took a break in filming to deal with the firing of its original star, Kevin Spacey, following a sexual misconduct scandal (including an accusation of attempted rape). His former co-star and new lead of the series, Robin Wright, revealed that the show almost did not make it to a sixth season.
In an interview with Net-A-Porter, Wright divulged that the show came “very, very close” to cancellation.
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Wright elaborated, “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 honoring this thing that’s dirty.’”
However, Wright fought for her show. She told the executives at Netflix, “Our show’s not dirty.” She then told them that they should continue the show. “I believed we should finish. I believed we should honor our commitment. To the people that loved the show, also. Why quit? They printed that it was ‘only’ 600 people out of work, but if you include security, cops, shooting on location in Baltimore, everything, 2,500 people would have been out of a job. And that’s not fair – to take that security away from those people… They didn’t do anything [wrong].”
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When asked about her feelings about the show coming to an end, Wright explained that it was bittersweet. “I loved the people I worked with. We had such a tight bond; it became your family. It was leaving home, really emotional. Oh my God, so many tears. Tears and jumping for joy that we completed the show, that we got to bring it fully to fruition.”
She briefly discussed her former co-star, Spacey, when discussing whether he should be given a reprieve in his career, “I believe every human being has the ability to reform. Has the ability to reform. In that sense, second chances, or whatever you are going to call it – absolutely, I believe in that. It’s called growth.”
At the end of the interview, she also teased the final season of the show, “It’s pretty wild. I mean, we’re doing an opera. And we went operatic! I don’t know how much more we could have topped ourselves. You’ll be surprised.”
House of Cards Season 6 debuts on Netflix on November 2, 2018.