Anna Faris accused the Ghostbusters director of abusive behaviour on a film set

This is awful.

Actress Anna Faris attends the 22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on January 30, 2016 in Los Angeles, California.
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(Image credit: Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty)

Anna Faris has opened up about her experience of being bullied and harassed on a film set.

Speaking to her guest Lena Dunham on her podcast, Unqualified, the House Bunny actress recalled what sounds like a horrific experience with director Ivan Reitman while they were working on My Super Ex-Girlfriend.

"Well, one of my hardest film experiences was with Ivan Reitman," Anna told Lena.

"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."

Anna's memories of her first day on that set sound really upsetting: "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."

She continued: "And it's all over. I had this Yves Saint Laurent sweater that my character was wearing.

"So I was, like, 20 to 25 minutes late on my very first [day].

"And 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."

When Anna finally got out, Ivan shouted at her, she claims.

"He was like, 'Annie.' He'd always called me Annie," she told Lena.

"He's like, 'You can't play like that around here. Like, this is not like...' And I was like, 'Don't do it. Don't cry. No crying.'

"And I felt angry and hurt and humiliated and defensive. 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.

"But then later, he slapped my ass, too. That was a weird moment."

Lena told Anna how sorry she was that this happened and asked her whether anyone intervened to say that wasn't OK.

Heartbreakingly, Anna answered: "No. It was, like, 2006."

Ivan Reitman, who died in February 2022, was famous for directing the original Ghostbusters series. He was father to fellow filmmaker Jason Reitman.

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.