Everyone has had a bad experience on the set of a film, and sometimes it can be from beloved filmmakers. On an episode of her podcast, Unqualified, Anna Faris told her guest Lena Dunham how it was working with the late director Ivan Reitman. She recalled her butt being slapped and him yelling at her on the first day for being late after an accident when filming My Super Ex-Girlfriend. She said she felt “angry and hurt and humiliated” and referred to his style as a “reign of terror.”
Back in 2017, Anna Faris hinted about her time with Ivan Reitman. She had mentioned that a director slapped her butt on set but never mentioned him until now.
Anna Faris talks “reign of terror” from late director Ivan Reitman
The accident in question involved her hair designer. As they were preparing in the trailer, the designer accidentally knocked wig glue on the star’s costume. It made her late for her first day. Anna Faris thought to herself in hopes that Ivan Reitman would not think of her as a “diva.” She then found herself in the middle of a lit street, being yelled at by him as she tried not to cry. She asked him, “Did no one tell you what happened?” He was quiet after that, and sometime later, he slapped her butt, which she called “a weird moment.”
A scene was being shot where Anna Faris would move books while on a ladder; that was when Ivan Reitman slapped her butt. All she “could do was giggle.” The crew asked, “What are you going to do about that? That seemed weird.” Instead, she went by the incident, although it made her “feel small.”
The film was a 2006 comedy that followed a superhero getting back at her ex-boyfriend. With poor reviews and a $30 million budget that grossed $60 million, it had failed. Still, it held high talent for its cast. It starred Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson, Wanda Sykes, and Rainn Wilson.
