Director Frankie Ingrassia was promised actor Andy Dick would be clean and sober when he arrived on the set of her film “Vampire Dad” on Oct. 18 — and he was.
However, she said that he didn’t stay that way for long. Dick was fired from the project on his first day of shooting over sexual harassment claims the cast and crew made against the actor, who Ingrassia said appeared to become intoxicated on set.
“We were promised that he would be delivered sober,” Ingrassia told TheWrap. “He was sober upon arrival. As soon as we heard about the misconduct, I told my first AD to get him off set. In fact, they removed him so quickly we let him keep the wardrobe. He was literally pushed off set. It is literally inexcusable what he did. It was a zero-tolerance situation. The minute we heard something, he was gone.”
According to a termination letter obtained by TheWrap, Dick was removed from the set after “multiple, flagrant acts of improper conduct and inappropriate contact with several crew members.” Ingrassia and “Vampire Dad” producers Kathryn Moseley and Jed Rhein have hired independent counsel to conduct an investigation into the allegations — the details of which she declined to specify.
This marks the second film this month from which Dick has been fired over sexual misconduct and harassment claims, following his dismissal in mid-October from the Arizona set of indie flick “Raising Buchanan.”
Reps for Dick did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Moseley told TheWrap that when she hired Dick, who has frequently discussed his well-publicized history of substance abuse issues, he “presented himself as cogent, polite and sober” and “we thought he would make an interesting misfit vampire.”
The producer said she also believes in “second chances” and echoed Ingrassia’s statement that, they “were under the assumption that he was sober.” “If I had known about the incident earlier in October in Arizona, we would have never hired him,” she added.
“I am a feminist. I have experienced sexual harassment myself. And this was not OK,” Ingrassia said of Dick’s behavior on set, which she noted had a cast that was 70 percent female. “We really did think he was right for the role. We were promised he was sober.”
Ingrassia, who co-wrote the script with Moseley, told TheWrap the film’s team “all knew it would be a risk if he wasn’t sober, but we were all told repeatedly over and over again that he was.”
“This is a feature film made in under 10 days on a shoestring budget,” she continued, “and I’m sure the producers thought having his name would help, but I think everyone realized almost immediately it wasn’t worth it.”
Moseley first told the story of the team’s experience with Dick to The Hollywood Reporter, saying the actor arrived late, and though he was initially pleasant, soon requested alcohol and “became belligerent.”
Moseley, who produced the film through newcomer company One Two Twenty Entertainment, told THR that one scene was filmed with Dick before he was thrown off set after team members came forward alleging the actor touched them inappropriately.
Though Ingrassia says she “barely” had any contact with Dick that day, when she was first introduced to him on set he was “interacting with people like a normal human being.”
“Some of the people are saying that maybe he had taken pills,” Ingrassia said. “When he did get in front of me a few hours later he looked like he was going to fall asleep. I don’t know what substance he was influenced by, but there was definitely something very strong in his body. I hope that he finds rehab. Not to excuse what he did, because it’s inexcusable.”
Dick told THR that he “took too many Xanax and I was a bit loopy [on set].”
The film wrapped production on October 29, and Ingrassia said she is currently in the early stages of editing. The flick tells the story of a family man who gets transformed into a vampire on Halloween and encounters creatures from the underworld. It stars Grace Fulton, Jackson Hurst, Emily O’Brien, Barak Hardley, Michael Naizu, Juli Cuccia and Rich Cohen, with Jonathan Pessin replacing Dick after his termination.
Ingrassia told TheWrap how “excited” she is about the “vibrant, visual, unique comedy,” but that it’s a “bummer we had to start off with a negative story… As a woman, this is the last news article that we wanted attached to our film. We made a comedy about a vampire dad with a strong female lead.”
Ingrassia knows that what happened on her set is one of many stories currently circulating about sexual misconduct in Hollywood. But she’d really like it if the conversation changed. “The real story here is there’s a lot of predators out there and it’s time we remove them,” Ingrassia said. “And you know, we’re making them relevant by talking about them and I think we have to start not talking about them because when they become irrelevant is when we will affect change.”
Moseley told TheWrap it is “impossible to predict how people will behave in the future,” but moving forward she plans “to think carefully before hiring a person with known addiction and behavioral issues.”