Anna Faris said that Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman led a “reign of terror” on the set of the 2006 comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend, revealing on a new episode of her podcast Anna Faris Is Unqualified that he “yelled” and “slapped my ass” in public.
“One of my hardest film experiences was with Ivan Reitman,” she told guest Lena Dunham. “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 every day, and my first day, it was me.”
Faris recalled being “20-25 minutes late” to her first call after one of the crew members accidentally dumped a quart of wig glue on her costume. As Reitman screamed, she said she held back tears, and “felt angry, and hurt, and humiliated, and defensive.”
“But then later, he slapped my ass,” she said.
Faris has spoken about the incident before, though at the time she did not name Reitman as the perpetrator. Her new candor follows his death earlier this year at the age of 75.
In 2017, as allegations against Harvey Weinstein became public, Faris recalled “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.”
She added, “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.”
Hearing the story about Reitman, Dunham said, “I don’t think you’re the first person that reported” that kind of behavior. She added that she had once visited one of his film shoots and remembered thinking, “This is a comedy, but no one’s laughing and everybody’s scared.” Check out the interview below, with the conversation about Reitman beginning shortly after the 20-minute mark.
