‘Heroes’ star Leonard Roberts claims racism, ‘tension’ with Ali Larter led to exit
Roberts was killed off at the end of Season 1 on 'Heroes' after tension with Ali Larter
Heroes star Leonard Roberts landed a plum role on the NBC series that was meant to be his breakout role. However, he just revealed he was subjected to systematic racism and singled out by his leading lady, Ali Larter.
Roberts shared his experience on the NBC superhero drama that ran from 2006 to 2010. He played D.L. Hawkins but was fired after the first season. In an essay for Variety published on Wednesday, the actor opened up about the behind-the-scenes tension that he felt showrunner Tim Kring was indifferent to.
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He was keenly aware that there were no Black writers on the show despite featuring Black characters who were relegated to the back of the promotional shots. Nonetheless, he was excited about Heroes in which his character was paired in a “volatile” interracial marriage with Larter’s Niki Sanders.
“Coming from theater, I was familiar with passions running high in the process of bringing characters to life, so I later gave her a bottle of wine with a note affirming what I believed to be mutual respect and a shared commitment to doing exceptional work. Neither the gift nor the note was ever acknowledged,” he wrote.
Roberts, now 48, shared that Larter was offended by a scene in which their characters were intimate. Greg Beeman, the director, asked her to lower the straps of her shirt and show her bare shoulders. She refused.
“I remember instinctively checking to make sure both my hands were visible to everyone who was there, as not to have my intentions or actions misconstrued. Despite Beeman’s clear description of what he was looking for visually, my co-star insisted she was, indeed, being asked to remove her top completely, and rehearsal was cut,” Roberts wrote.
“She then demanded a meeting with Beeman and the producers who were on set and proceeded to have an intense and loud conversation in which she expressed she had never been so disrespected — as an actress, a woman or a human being.”
He noted that Larter had no issue with performing a similar love scene with Adrian Pasdar. Pasdar told him that Larter had been more than open to improvise.
“I pondered why my co-star had exuberantly played a different scene with the Petrelli character involving overt sexuality while wearing lingerie, but found aspects of one involving love and intimacy expressed through dialogue with my character, her husband, disrespectful to her core. I couldn’t help wondering whether race was a factor.”
Variety corroborated the allegations of a divisive set with Larter at the center with multiple sources. It led to Roberts being fired. His character was killed off by gunmen.
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“In a short voicemail message [from Tim Kring], he said that due to ‘the Ali Larter situation,’ when the show returned for Season 2, audiences would learn that D.L. had died, and that I was free to call him if I wanted to talk,” he wrote.
Roberts claimed that Heroes executive producer Dennis Hammer finally acknowledged his race at that point to avoid being sued.
“Don’t think of this as a situation where the Black man loses and the white woman wins,” Hammer said.
Roberts added that Kring expressed that he “wished he didn’t have to be bothered with the details of running a show and could just write.”
Roberts was further insulted when Heroes offered him a guest-starring pay rate rather than one of a series regular for the following season to wrap up his arc. It would be another decade before he became a series regular on a television series.
“My voice felt muted and my light dimmed. Fighting against the isolation brought on by both was at times all consuming. I was ashamed and the shame I felt wasn’t the result of suffering the indignity, but, for a fleeting moment, actually being surprised by it,” he wrote.
Larter issued a statement to ET and stated she was “deeply saddened” by his account. She further claimed that his recollection did not match her memory. However, she apologized for any hurt caused.
“I respect Leonard as an artist and I applaud him or anyone using their voice and platform. I am truly sorry for any role I may have played in his painful experience during that time and I wish him and his family the very best,” the statement read in part.
Kring and Hammer responded to Roberts’s allegations in Variety.
“I acknowledge that a lack of diversity at the upper levels of the staff may have contributed to Leonard experiencing the lack of sensitivity that he describes,” Kring said.
“Fourteen years is a long time ago, but I remember clearly that Leonard was a great guy and a total pro,” Hammer said.
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