Star of the saga, “Scary Movie” parody and of the “Mom” series, Anna Faris reached peak popularity between 2000 and 2010. A popularity that did not, however, protect her from more than inappropriate behavior . She has indeed recently revealed the identity of a well-known filmmaker who touched her during a shoot in 2005.
The success and the slap
In 2000, Anna Faris played Cindy Campbell, a friendly but very naive young girl in a comedy that quickly became cult: Scary Movie. She reprized her role in the next three films, appearing for the last time in 2006 in Scary Movie 4. She is at this time a great American comedy starand also successfully appeared in dramas like Lost in Translation in 2003 and Brokeback Mountain in 2005. But being at the top of the wave does not protect you from anything, especially if you are a woman.
Indeed, 2005 is also the year in which Anna Faris lives a traumatic experience while she turns under the direction of a famous filmmaker, specialist in comedy. She had already mentioned the incident in 2017. But Anna Faris has this time, in a conversation with Lena Dunham for her podcast Unqualifiedrevealed identity of the one she then accused of a very bad gesture.
“He slapped my butt very hard, in front of everyone”
Between October 2005 and January 2006, Anna Faris gives the reply to Luke Wilson and Uma Thurman on the set of the filming of my great ex, a romantic comedy that plays with the codes of the superhero genre. Directed by Ivan Reitman, to whom we owe the first two films in particular Ghostbusters, my great ex attracts negative reviews and settles in the bottom of the basket of the director’s filmography. Disappointing on screen, the film was also very complicated to shoot for Anna Faris, who said that Ivan Reitman had had obnoxious behaviorverbally and physically.
One of my most difficult experiences was with Ivan Reitman. The idea of trying to make a comedy under this regime of terror… He was screaming a lot. Every day he was going to humiliate someone… and on my first day, that was me.
I was doing a scene where I was standing on a library ladder, and he slapped my butt really hard, in front of everyone. And all I could do was giggle. I remember looking around and seeing the team members like, “Wait, are you going to say something? That’s weird though…” And here’s how I put that aside. I thought, “Come on, it’s nothing. Well, it’s not much. Hang on, Faris, Just have a laugh. But it diminished me, it was humiliating. He wouldn’t have does that to the male lead.
Sexism integrated into Hollywood mores
Lena Dunham, to whom Anna Faris has just made this revelation, was aware of the incident. But, like everyone else, she did not know the identity of the director. She continues: “I don’t think you’re the first to report this. And I’m very sorry that you had this experience. But nobody reacted and said, ‘No’?” To which Anna Faris responds:
No. It was in 2006.
This testimony will have no direct consequences for Ivan Reitman, since he died on February 12, 2022. A disappearance that probably played in Anna Faris’ decision to reveal her identity and bring an eloquent testimony on the atmosphere that then reigned on the film sets during the 2000s. She also tells how the words of the director, reported by his agent, discriminated against her.
He told my agent, who repeated it to me, that I had beautiful legs and that was one of the reasons for my casting. And, honestly, that’s a great compliment, I love my legs. But, in a way, that’s what defined my whole relationship to this project. I don’t think the lead actor was cast because he had nice legs. So I felt chosen for these reasons – and not for my talent.
