EXCLUSIVE: Percy Hynes White is written out of Netflix’s Addams Family spinoff show Wednesday after anonymous sex assault allegations were posted online
Emmy Award nominee Percy Hynes White was pulled from the Netflix hit on Wednesday, nine months after he was accused of assaulting a woman at a party in Toronto, industry insiders have exclusively told DailyMail.com.
The Canadian actor, 22, played Xavier Thorpe in the Addams Family spin-off – 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.
Hynes White was a rising star — with notable appearances on The Twilight Zone and The Gifted — before the allegations surfaced in a now-deleted Tweet posted by an anonymous social media user on Jan. 18.
Percy Hynes White was written out of the Netflix show on Wednesday, six months after an anonymous Tweet accused him of sexual assault. Here he is at a Golden Globes after-party with star Jenna Ortega
Hynes White is back home in Canada. His mom Sherry White posted this photo of them both walking in the Newfoundland woods on Aug. 20
“My family has been robbed and my friends have received death threats. Pictures of minors of me were used, and examples of my character behavior were presented as hateful,” Hynes White wrote after the accusation was made.
Novelist Joel Tomas Hynes is soon to back his proposal, saying he’s had to rethink his belief in the adage that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
The poster claimed she was sexually assaulted by the actor at a party he hosted and accused him of throwing the bash with the intention of getting women drunk enough to have sex with him.
“Percy is a wonderful young man, that’s the truth,” an insider told DailyMail.com. He never again participated in any of the false allegations, which were posted on Twitter and have never been followed up or substantiated.
“Percy is a respectful, gracious, talented actor, a true professional. He is unfailingly polite to everyone, including the crew and his fans, most of whom are loyal to him as they should be.
It’s a shame that Netflix is cutting him from the series. They were just false rumors. It’s just not right.’
Netflix claims that due to the strikes now plaguing Hollywood, no casting decision has been made.
Hynes White and his parents, both actors and writers, strongly denied the allegations in an impassioned Instagram post in June, with Hynes White describing it as a “campaign of misinformation.”
He wrote: “Earlier this year, someone I’ve never met started a campaign online with misinformation about me.
Wednesday was nominated for two Emmys and two Golden Globes
“Because of this, my family has been doxxed and my friends have received death threats. Underage photos of me were used, and examples of my character behavior were presented as hateful.
“My friend Jane was wrongly portrayed as a victim and her efforts to make things right have been ignored. She has given me permission to include her in this message.’
He continued: “The rumors are false. I cannot accept the portrayal of me as being bigoted or criminally negligent of people’s safety.
“These are the kind of unfounded, harmful claims that can arouse mistrust towards victims. It is very disturbing to know that this misinformation has upset people.
“I am very grateful to everyone who has supported me and helped share the facts. Please stop harassing my family, friends and colleagues. Thank you for taking the time to read this.’
Double Emmy nominee Wednesday invents a new life for Wednesday Addams. Expelled from school for putting live piranhas in the pool, she is enrolled in Nevermore Academy – a Vermont school for “monstrous outcasts” that her parents Gomez and Morticia both attended.
Hynes White’s character is also a student at Nevermore.
Hynes White’s father, 47-year-old actor and novelist Joel Thomas Hynes, has also expressed support for his son, describing him as “wrongly accused.”
Hynes White’s character Xavier Thorpe is a classmate of Wednesday Addams at Nevermore Academy, a Vermont school “for monstrous outcasts”
He posted on Instagram how the accusation that he threw a party to get women so drunk that they would have sex with him affected him and his family.
Jenna Ortega gave Hynes White a huge hug when he dropped him off at the Toronto airport in January
Days after the accusation was first made, Hynes White and his mother went to a benefit in Los Angeles
Wednesday has been played by several actresses on various Addams Family shows over the years, most notably by Christina Ricci in the 1990s and the original, Lisa Loring, 30 years earlier
Hynes wrote: ‘I used to blindly subscribe to the old adage that where there is smoke there must be fire.
“But if the last few months have made anything absolutely clear, it’s that where there’s smoke (even if there’s a lot of it), sometimes everything is smoke.”
He added: “This anonymous online hate is powerful stuff. But what really empowers these types of campaigns is the culture of fear and silence that prevents EVERYONE from standing up for the wrongly accused – for fear that the mob would turn their beady eyes on you and yours.
“If publicly expressing my support for my kind and gentle, immensely talented son is tantamount to throwing myself to the wolves—so be it, come what may,” Hynes wrote.
‘Really, who cares? What’s a life for? I’ve been there for a long time and I plan to stay for a while.
Malcom X once said, “I’m for the truth, no matter who tells it.” I am for justice, regardless of who it is for or against.’
“When all this SMOKE has cleared (and it must eventually), I will still be standing here beside my son, holding on to the only saying worth protecting: that the truth is continually moving toward the light. So come on, let there be light.’
The message was reposted by Hynes-White’s mother Sherry White, 52, herself a successful writer and film producer.
In March, Jenna Ortega, 20, who plays the title character on Wednesday, also supported him during an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast in which she spoke enthusiastically about sharing an apartment with him during the filming that took place in Romania.
She said, “Literally, we mothered each other. So it’s like whenever someone was busier, going through something, we were there.”
While the Gifted actor won’t return on Wednesday, he does have other projects in the pipeline, including Winter Spring Summer of Fall – a romantic comedy filmed with Ortega in Utah earlier this year.
“Percy will be fine,” the insider said. ‘People in the profession know his character and talent. Netflix and the Wednesday show should be ashamed of themselves for treating him so unfairly.”