Anna Faris says that late Hollywood director Ivan Reitman created a "reign of terror" on the set of the 2006 comedy "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" and “slapped” her on the behind.
Faris, 45, opened up about Reitman's alleged misconduct while speaking with writer, actor and director Lena Dunham on the Oct. 19 episode of the "Anna Faris is Unqualified" podcast.
TODAY has reached out to representatives for Reitman and his son, actor and director Jason Reitman, for comment.
Faris described Reitman, who died in February at age 75, as a volatile director prone to violent outbursts.
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“I mean, the idea of attempting to make a comedy under this, like, reign of terror — he was a yeller,” said Faris. “He would bring down somebody every day, and my first day, it was me.”
According to Faris, Reitman grew angry when Faris became delayed in her trailer after a jar of “wig glue” spilled on her just before filming a fight scene with co-star Uma Thurman. “I was terrified, truly, that my first day, Ivan thinks that I’m some kind of diva that's not coming out of my trailer,” recalled the actor.
Faris said she arrived "20 to 25 minutes" late to the set, where Reitman screamed at her.
“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,” she said.
“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 recalled. “Eventually, I said, ‘Did no one tell you what happened?’ And at that point, he kind of just shut up and then he, like, went behind the camera.”
She added: “But then later, he slapped my a--, too; that was a weird moment."
“My Super Ex-Girlfriend” producer Gavin Polone responded to Faris’ allegations in a statement to Deadline: “I never saw that incident, or heard about it, but I would not have any reason to dispute Anna’s account, either. If Anna says it happened, I believe her. If it had happened in front of me, I certainly would have confronted Ivan about it. I’m sad to think Anna was demeaned in that way.”
The “Scary Movie” star said she was afraid to make waves at the time and opted to deal with Reitman's alleged misconduct by focusing on her work. “It was, like, I’m going to lay low and play it safe,” she recalled thinking. “I am taking zero risks in this movie.”
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Faris previously spoke up about being touched inappropriately on a movie set without naming the movie’s director during an October 2017 episode of her podcast.
“I was doing a scene where I was on a ladder and I was supposed to be taking, like, books off a shelf and he slapped my a-- in front of the crew so hard,” she said at the time. “And all I could do was giggle.”
Faris recalled being surprised that no crew members called out the director's behavior. Ultimately, the crew’s inaction convinced her to dismiss the incident, she said.
“I was like, ‘Well, this isn’t a thing. Like, it’s not that big of a deal. Come on, Faris. Like, buck up. It's not that big of a deal. Like, just giggle.’ But it made me feel small," she said. "And, you know, he wouldn’t have done that to the lead male."
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