Acting can unfortunately be a disturbing experience. Welcome to MsMojo, for this list, we’ll be looking at the darker side of the film and television industry, counting down some of the worst experiences actors have shared about their work environments.
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00:00 It was like the worst experience of my life, hands down, I think.
00:05 Welcome to Miss Mojo.
00:07 For this list, we'll be looking at the darker side of the film and television industry,
00:11 counting down some of the worst experiences actors have shared about their work environments.
00:16 It was a really emotional experience.
00:18 I laughed during the writing of it and then I cried a lot after I wrote that vignette.
00:23 Number 10.
00:24 Naya Rivera - Glee Mean girl characters can be fun, especially
00:28 in teen shows like Glee, but there are some lines you don't cross.
00:31 I took what you said to heart and I thought long and hard about it and it occurred to
00:36 me that you may have a point.
00:38 While discussing messy scenes from the show, on a podcast with her co-stars, Naya Rivera
00:43 brought up a memorable scene featuring her character Santana and Chris Colfer's Kurt.
00:48 In the scene, Santana really lays into Kurt, insulting his voice, appearance and poor dancing
00:54 skills.
00:55 Maybe Blaine woke up one day and said, "You know what?
00:56 I don't want to marry a sexless, self-centered, baton twirler.
00:59 Maybe I need someone who knows more than three dance moves.
01:01 The finger wag, the shoulder shimmy, and the one where you pretend to twirl two invisible
01:07 rainbow-colored ribbons attached to your hips."
01:09 It really blurred the line between character and actor and apparently upset Colfer during
01:14 filming.
01:15 Of course, it wasn't the first time Glee's insults had gotten uncomfortably personal.
01:19 Many of Sue's insults directly referenced characters' race or weight, and there was
01:24 a shockingly mean-spirited recurring gag on the show about Sam Evans' lips.
01:29 9.
01:30 Winona Ryder - Alien Resurrection Although it's often considered one of the
01:46 worst Alien films, Resurrection has a pretty memorable chase sequence.
01:51 It takes place entirely underwater.
01:57 To a viewer, this looks pretty cool.
01:59 But for actress Winona Ryder, who had traumatic past experiences in the water, the scene was
02:04 a nightmare.
02:15 To get the shot just right, the scene required actors to swim in a 4.5-meter-deep tank with
02:21 no fins and no masks.
02:23 Ryder held onto hope that a body double would be able to take her place for the sequence,
02:28 but when it proved impossible, she was forced to do it herself.
02:32 Understandably, she had a panic attack on the first day of filming.
02:41 8.
02:42 Charisma Carpenter - Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel
02:45 In 2020, Justice League star Ray Fisher tweeted that Joss Whedon was abusive and unprofessional
02:51 on the set of the comic book film.
02:53 To some, the accusation came as a shock.
03:10 Following the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon was often hailed as a
03:14 progressive feminist director in fandom spaces.
03:18 Unfortunately, what he was representing on screen didn't quite match his off-screen
03:22 behavior.
03:28 Following Fisher's accusation, Buffy and Angel star Charisma Carpenter opened up about
03:32 her own experiences with the director.
03:35 She claimed that she was frequently berated and called fat in front of her co-workers
03:39 during her pregnancy, and sustained a chronic physical condition during filming that still
03:43 affects her to this day.
03:46 7.
03:47 Shelley Duvall - The Shining With Barry Lyndon delivering mixed results
03:51 upon release, Stanley Kubrick was eager to make a film worthy of critical acclaim and
03:56 financial success.
03:58 The Shining became that film, at the expense of one of its lead actors.
04:05 In pursuit of perfection, the auteur shot some scenes 35 times, claiming he could tell
04:11 the actors were unprepared by the look in their eyes.
04:14 This was particularly hellish for the actress Shelley Duvall, whose character Wendy is terrorized
04:19 for the majority of the film's runtime.
04:28 The actress described grueling 16-hour days where all she did was carry a child and hysterically
04:34 cry on cue.
04:35 At times, the mere thought of having to spend a full day crying was enough to cause the
04:39 tears needed for the shoot.
04:44 6.
04:48 Tippi Hedren - The Birds Working with animals can be tricky.
04:52 That's why for this memorable attack scene in The Birds, the intention was to use mechanical
04:57 creatures rather than live ones.
04:59 However, when the mechanical birds failed, the shoot carried on.
05:04 With real birds.
05:08 If you think this sounds dangerous, you'd be correct.
05:24 The attic attack scene on screen is completely real, and almost resulted in star Tippi Hedren
05:29 losing an eye.
05:32 Ironically, Hedren didn't seem to learn from this traumatic experience.
05:40 Years later, the actress went on to produce and co-star in an adventure film titled Roar,
05:45 which prominently featured real lions.
05:48 The wild animals involved infamously injured 70 members of the cast and crew, including
05:54 Hedren herself, leading to a reputation as the most dangerous movie ever made.
06:01 5.
06:04 Jeanette McCurdy - iCarly In 2018, the over two-decade-long partnership
06:15 between Nickelodeon and Dan Schneider came to an end.
06:18 Though the sudden severing of ties came as unexpected to some, others used the opportunity
06:23 to highlight long-standing rumors and allegations about the producers' misconduct, both on
06:28 set and online.
06:30 Although she never named Schneider directly, Jeanette McCurdy would seemingly add weight
06:35 to these allegations with the release of her 2022 memoir.
06:52 In the book, she detailed her time on the sets of iCarly and Sam & Cat describing "The
06:58 Creator" as harsh and controlling.
07:00 She even described a moment in which he pressured her to drink alcohol underage, claiming it
07:05 would give her more "edge" for their pre-teen comedy show.
07:11 4.
07:18 Jessica Walter - Arrested Development Following Jeffrey Tambor's allegations of
07:23 misconduct on the set of Transparent, the actor sat down for an interview with the cast
07:28 of Arrested Development, where his co-workers were asked to speak about his behavior on
07:32 their show.
07:33 During the conversation, Jessica Walter tearfully recounted moments where he'd yell at her
07:38 in a way that felt uniquely cruel.
07:48 In spite of her clear discomfort, her co-stars spoke over her, trying to excuse Tambor's
07:54 behavior as typical of Hollywood, with only the youngest cast member in attendance, Alia
07:58 Shawkat, attempting to speak up for the older woman.
08:11 Though Walter eventually forgave Tambor, the initial reaction to her accounts by her co-workers
08:17 spoke volumes about how normalized abusive behavior had become on film and television
08:30 sets.
08:33 On-screen exploitation is what Quentin Tarantino does best.
08:46 Filming plays with history that manipulate contemporary cultural anxieties.
08:50 It's behind-the-scenes exploitation that we take issue with.
08:54 While filming Kill Bill, Uma Thurman says she was forced to perform a dangerous car
08:59 stunt in a vehicle she referred to as a "death box."
09:16 The seat in the car wasn't secure, and the road Thurman was meant to drive on was unpaved.
09:21 Eventually, the inevitable happened.
09:24 She crashed.
09:25 The actress suffered a concussion and briefly feared that she may never walk again.
09:30 Thankfully, she was able to escape the wreck with her life, but her story still serves
09:34 as a harrowing cautionary tale in favor of stunt safety.
09:44 Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio – The Abyss In case it wasn't obvious from the 13-year
09:50 gap between Avatar and its sequel, James Cameron is a bit of a perfectionist.
09:55 This can result in some beautiful imagery and some awful working conditions.
10:10 In 1988, filming began on the director's underwater sci-fi film The Abyss, which would
10:16 become so rife with on-set issues that actor Ed Harris would compare his time shooting
10:21 it to going to war.
10:23 His co-star, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, seems to have gotten the worst of it, as she
10:28 eventually broke down and told Cameron they were "not animals."
10:39 The 70-hour work week spent primarily in an isolated water tank understandably took its
10:45 toll.
10:46 It didn't help that one of Mastrantonio's scenes involved her being repeatedly hit and
10:51 screamed at.
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11:21 In 2017, when the #MeToo movement was gaining traction, writer Audrey Wachow made a Twitter
11:26 thread about repeated instances of harassment and inappropriate behavior by a former showrunner.
11:32 As support poured in, it became clear that the once-anonymous showrunner she referred
11:37 to was One Tree Hill's Mark Schwann.
11:40 A day later, 18 women from the set came together and penned a letter to Variety detailing their
11:46 own experiences with Schwann.
11:48 The cast described being manipulated psychologically and emotionally by their boss while being
11:53 put in increasingly uncomfortable positions.
11:57 Hilary Burton has even gone on to describe a situation in which Chad Michael Murray had
12:02 to defend her from the showrunner, while Sophia Bush has expressed discomfort with the sexualization
12:07 of her character on screen.
12:09 We found out from a writer that he kept a board of the fitting photos of each girl in
12:16 underwear up in his office.
12:18 Did anything in this list surprise you?
12:20 Let us know in the comments.
12:22 The sensation of white hot rage in my chest is not small.
12:28 [music]