Anna Faris Says Director Ivan Reitman Ruled With a ‘Reign of Terror’ on Set, Once Slapped Her
"This person scares the shit out of me," Faris said of the Ghostbusters director.
Celebrities

“Can I speak ill of the dead?” Anna Faris asked on the latest episode of her podcast Anna Faris Is Unqualified. In it, she talks with guest Lena Dunham about the ins and outs of Hollywood, from acting to directing and beyond. The question is in reference to the late Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, with whom Faris worked in the early 2000s. Faris described her time on the set as working under a “reign of terror,” including one incident in which Reitman berated her and another in which he touched her inappropriately, according to the Guardian. When Dunham asked her about what makes her least able to do her job, Faris said, “It’s always been, ‘This person scares the shit out of me.’”
Though Faris has previously spoken about the physical incident—when Reitman slapped her ass while she was on a ladder—on a podcast episode in 2017, right as the #MeToo movement was taking off, this is the first time that she’s called the abusive director by name. “One of my hardest film experiences was Ivan Reitman,” she told 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 on my first day, it was me.”