The Fall Of The House Of Usher: Who Plays Juno Usher & How Was She Discovered?
Contains spoilers for "The Fall of the House of Usher"
Mike Flanagan, like most directors, enjoys working with talent that he trusts. His latest and last Netflix production, "The Fall of the House of Usher," a live-action adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story, features a number of faces familiar to those who enjoy his work, including Kate Siegel, Carla Gugino, and Rahul Kohli. "Usher" also features the return of a comparatively new actor in Flanagan's fold — Ruth Codd. She first appeared in Flanagan's "The Midnight Club," a Netflix original series that never made it beyond Season 1, as Anya. Now, in "Usher," Codd portrays Juno.
Juno is the second wife of Roderick Usher (Bruce Greenwood), the patriarch of the mighty Usher empire. She's a young woman desperately searching for a sense of belonging in a family that despises outsiders, and it doesn't help that she's younger than some of Roderick's adult children. Like Anya, Juno was written as an amputee, missing her lower right leg. While Juno was no doubt molded to match Codd, Codd was originally considered for Anya because she physically matched the character. And that was so important to the casting team that they overlooked minor details like Codd not being a performer.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Codd was a barber. Like many, she lost her job in 2020 and, like many, she turned to TikTok for solace. She shared her love of makeup and passion for disability awareness online with a subscriber count that skyrocketed to nearly 700,000. It was there, online, that Flanagan's casting team found her. When cast, she deleted her TikTok and dove headfirst into the world of acting.
Acting might be scary but Ruth Codd is up to the challenge
During a 2022 interview with Inverse about "The Midnight Club," Ruth Codd admitted that, as much as she loved her new life, acting was still scary. When asked about her biggest challenge with the drastic transition, she said, "Probably just getting my head around the whole 'acting' thing. I accepted halfway through the series that I didn't really know what was going on, and I probably never will. I've worked a couple of jobs since, and I still don't really know what's going on. I'm quite incapable of hitting a mark. So I think that's the type of actor I am."
Discomfort aside, she's now two Mike Flanagan projects deep, with no intention of stopping. In that same interview, Codd joked that she wouldn't mind working with Flanagan for the rest of her potential acting career, going so far as to describe his productions as "home" and "family."
In comparison to her role in "The Midnight Club," Codd's part in "The Fall of the House of Usher" is minor but that's because she serves as one of the limited series' only kind characters ... and "Usher," which may be Flanagan's best series yet, is a story of greed repaid. In fact, she's also one of the even fewer characters that receive a happy ending, which is a much-needed bright spot in a dark narrative.
"The Fall of the House of Usher" is now streaming on Netflix.