Emmy-award nominee, Percy Hynes White has reportedly been dropped out of the Netflix smash hit Wednesday, nine months after he was accused of assaulting a woman at a party in Toronto.
The Canadian actor, 22, played Xavier Thorpe in the Addams Family spinoff, a student at Wednesday’s school who can make art come to life.
A source close to his family, who split their time between homes in Toronto and Newfoundland, confirmed the news.
The allegations emerged in a now-deleted Tweet posted by an anonymous social media user on January 18.
The poster claimed she had been sexually assaulted by the actor at a party he was hosting and accused him of throwing the bash with the intention of getting women drunk enough to get them to have sex with him.
‘Percy is wonderful young man, that’s the truth,’ an insider told DailyMail. ‘He never took part in any of the false claims again him, which were on Twitter and never followed up or substantiated.
‘Percy is respectful, gracious, talented actor, a true professional. He’s unfailingly polite to all, including the crew and his fans, most of whom are loyal to him as it should be.
‘For Netflix to drop him from the show is a disgrace. It was just false rumors. It’s just not right.’
Netflix is claiming that because of the strikes now besetting Hollywood, no decision on casting has been made.
Hynes White and his parents, both of whom are actors and writers, have strongly denied the allegations with Hynes White describing it as a ‘campaign of misinformation’ in an impassioned Instagram post in June.
He wrote: ‘Earlier this year, somebody I’ve never met started a campaign of misinformation about me online.
‘Because of this, my family has been doxxed, and my friends have received death threats. Underage photos of me were used, and examples of me acting in character were presented as hateful.
‘My friend Jane was falsely portrayed as a victim, and her attempts to set the record straight have been ignored. She gave me permission to include her in this message.’
He continued: ‘The rumors are false. I can’t accept the portrayal of me as someone bigoted, or criminally negligent of people’s safety.
‘These are the kind of baseless, harmful claims that can create mistrust toward victims. It’s very distressing to know that this misinformation has upset people.
‘I’m really thankful for everyone who’s stood by me and helped share the facts. Harassment of my family, friends and coworkers needs to stop please. Thank you for taking the time to read this.’
The double Emmy-nominated Wednesday invents a new life for Wednesday Addams. She gets expelled from school for putting live piranhas in the swimming pool and is enrolled in Nevermore Academy – a Vermont school for ‘monstrous outcasts’ which her parents Gomez and Morticia both attended.
Hynes White’s character is also a student at Nevermore.
Hynes White’s father, the actor and novelist Joel Thomas Hynes, 47, has also posted his support for his son and described him as ‘wrongly accused’.
Hynes wrote: ‘I used to quite blindly subscribe to the old adage that where there’s smoke there must be fire.
‘But if these past few months have made anything absolutely clear, it’s that where there’s smoke (even if there’s a whole lot of it) sometimes that’s all it is – smoke.’
He added: ‘This anonymous online hatred, it’s powerful stuff. But what truly empowers these types of campaigns is the culture of fear and silence that prevents ANYONE from speaking up for the wrongly accused – lest the mob should turn their beady eyes on you and yours.
‘If publicly offering my support for my kind and gentle, massively talented son equates to me throwing myself to the wolves – so be it, come what may,’ Hynes wrote.
‘Really, who cares? What’s a life for? I’ve been around for a long time and I’m planning to stick around for a good while yet.
‘Malcom X once famously stated ‘I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against’.
‘When all this SMOKE clears (and it eventually must), I’ll still be here, standing beside my son and holding firm to the one adage worth safeguarding – that truth is perpetually moving toward the light. So come on, let there be light.’
The post was reposted by Hynes-White’s mother Sherry White, 52, herself a successful writer and film producer.
