Netflix dropped a Latina housekeeper role from an upcoming comedy, Uncoupled, after backlash from an actress who called the role “hurtful.”
Actress Ada Maris, known for her role in Nurses, said she was initially excited when she heard a show starring Neil Patrick Harris was casting. However, when she read the script, Maris said she found the writing and character to be offensive.
“When I opened it and saw that it wasn’t even funny — it was hurtful and derogatory — I was shocked because I walked in expecting something very different given the way things are nowadays and the progress we’ve made,” Maris told Variety.
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The show centers on Harris being a newly single gay man in New York City whose husband left him after 17 years of marriage.
Netflix apologized in response to Maris in a statement obtained by Variety.
“We’re sorry that Ms. Maris had a negative experience, and this character will not appear in the series,” a Netflix spokesman said.
The housekeeper character was reportedly supposed to use broken English, be “nearly hysterical,” and at one point tell Harris‘s character to let her clean a cup because he does not do it well.
“Mister, I just get here and they stole,” the character was supposed to say in one scene. “They stole! They rob you! I don’t know how they get in.”
Maris, who in the 1980s played a housekeeper to a rich man in the show What a Country, said she’s glad the industry has come a long way with shows focused on the Latino community, including Ugly Betty and Gentefied.
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Maris said the more she thought about the role, the more she was surprised by the character, considering Harris and the show’s creator were both gay men.
“You are modern gay men. How would you like to watch or play an outdated, offensively stereotypical gay part?” Maris said in a letter obtained by the outlet.
