Anna Faris is opening up about a not-so-great time on set.
During a Wednesday episode of her podcast Anna Faris is Unqualified with guest Lena Dunham, the 45-year old recalled once again a time on set in which she was treated inappropriately by a famous director. She’s referenced the story before, but this time she really opened up — and finally revealed who it was.
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Anna began by asking, “Can I speak ill of the dead?” to which her guest eagerly agreed. She then revealed the director was none other than Ivan Reitman, director of such comedy classics as Ghostbusters, Stripes, and Twins. He passed away in February of this year.
Back in the mid-2000s he also directed Anna in a film called My Super Ex-Girlfriend with Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson. This was when the actress saw a different side of the comedy legend. She opened up:
“Well, one of my hardest film experiences was with Ivan Reitman. I mean, the idea of attempting to make a comedy under this, like, reign of terror — he was a yeller, he would bring down somebody everyday. My first day, it was me.”
Oh no! These bosses who scream at everyone… What do they think that’s accomplishing?? She continued:
“It was a fight sequence with Uma Thurman. It was just the beginning of it. So we did the rest of the right much later, but it was all really hard. It was New York, it was winter, and I wear a red wig, and right before I’m in hair and makeup and my hair lady knocks over a big jar of wig glue. It was like a quart, and it’s all over. I had this Yves Saint Laurent sweater that my character was wearing — they only had two of them for a fight sequence.”
Did Ivan yell at the hair and makeup department? Nope. Anna got the brunt. She recounted:
“So, I was like 20 to 25 minutes late on my very first, and I was terrified, truly, that my first day Ivan thinks that I’m some kind of a diva that’s not coming out of my trailer.”
She continued:
“Man, I’m like, in the middle of the street that’s all lit. You know, it’s a night shoot. And Ivan is just taking me down.”
Dunham then chimed in to ask if he was yelling at the House Bunny star, to which she responded:
“Yeah, he was just like, ‘Annie’ — he always called me ‘Annie,’ he’s like ‘You can’t play like that around here. And I was like, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t cry. No crying.’ And I felt angry and hurt and humiliated and defensive.”
She added, “Eventually, I said ‘Did no one tell you what happened?’” referring to the wig glue spill, before claiming, “at that point, he kind of just shut up and then he went like, went behind the camera.” No apology. Naturally.
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However, if that wasn’t bad enough, she revealed ANOTHER absolutely shocking and inappropriate behavior from Reitman:
“But then later, he slapped my ass, too. That was a weird moment.”
She added:
“With that incident, I think that I’m still of the generation and of the mentality of, like, how to calibrate that element — Like, on one hand, it wasn’t anything. Whatever. My ass is fine. On the other hand, it was like I did have, like, 30 people around me, I think, expecting me to do something. And I didn’t.”
Like we said, this isn’t a new claim. The actress had previously opened up about the sexual harassment back in 2017. Giving more context then, she described:
“I was doing a scene where I was on a ladder and I was supposed to be taking books off a shelf and he slapped my ass in front of the crew so hard. And all I could do was giggle. I remember looking around and I remember seeing the crew members being like, ‘Wait, what are you going to do about that? That seemed weird.’ And that’s how I dismissed it. I was like, ‘Well, this isn’t a thing. Like, it’s not that big of a deal. Buck up, Faris. Like, just giggle.’ But it made me feel small. He wouldn’t have done that to the lead male.”
She also said during that podcast ep five years ago:
“I remember that same director telling my agent, who told me, that I had great legs and that was one of the reasons that I got hired. And listen, that’s a f**king great compliment. I like my legs. But that sort of informed my whole experience with that whole project. I don’t think the male lead got hired because he had great legs. Therefore I felt like I’m hired because of these elements — not because of [talent].”
She didn’t reveal which director this was at the time. Maybe she feels more comfortable now that he’s passed? That she won’t hurt his career?
What an awful experience for Anna. We’re glad she’s able to talk about it now and work through those feelings. She’s definitely qualified to us! Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments down below.
[Images via 20th Century Studios & Brian To/Avalon/WENN]
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