American actress Anna Faris has accused the director Ivan Reitman of abusive behavior during the filming of the 2006 film My Super Ex-Girlfriend.
Speaking on her podcast Unqualified with guest Lena Dunham, the pair spoke about their behind-the-scenes experiences in the film industry and Faris decreed that her worst moments were during Reitman’s “reign of terror”.
Faris said she was left feeling “hurt and humiliated” as a result of Reitman’s “reign of terror”, and also said that the director, who died earlier this year, “slapped [her] ass.”
“One of my hardest film experiences was with Ivan Reitman,” she told Dunham. “I mean, the idea of attempting to make a comedy under this, like, reign of terror. He was a yeller. He would bring someone down every day… and my first day, it was me.”
Faris played the part of Hannah Lewis in the romantic comedy, with other lead actors in the cast including Uma Thurman and Luke Wilson.
The actress recalled how her first scene shot was a fight sequence with Uma Thurman, which they filmed in the winter in New York. Faris explained that when in hair and makeup ahead of the scene, the hair stylist had accidentally knocked a jar of wig glue over her and her character’s expensive costume, which made her late to the set.
“I was terrified on my first day that Ivan thinks I’m some kind of diva that doesn’t come out of her trailer,” Faris said. “I’m in the middle of the street that’s all lit. Ivan is just taking me down. He was like, ‘Annie, you can’t play like that around here!’ I was like, ‘Don’t do it, don’t cry. No crying.’”
Dunham asked the actress if anyone had stepped in or reacted at the time, to which Faris responded: “No, it was, like, 2006.”
Also known as the director of 1984’s Ghostbusters and 1988’s Twins, Reitman passed away earlier this year, at the age of 75.
In a podcast episode released in 2017, in the wake of #MeToo, Faris had shared on her podcast that she was made to feel “small” when a film director allegedly slapped her bottom while on set, but at the time she didn’t provide a name.
