Anna Faris accuses Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman of abusive behaviour on film set

Anna Faris has accused director Ivan Reitman of abusive and bullying behaviour on the set of the 2006 romcom My Super Ex-Girlfriend.

On an episode of her podcast Anna Faris Is Unqualified, Faris told guest Lena Dunham that the director “slapped [her] ass” in public, “yelled” at her as part of a “reign of terror”, and left her “angry, hurt and humiliated”.

Faris said: “One of my hardest film experiences was with Ivan Reitman. 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.”

In response to Dunham’s suggestion that Faris was not “the first person who’s reported that”, Faris said that she felt unable to respond to Reitman’s behaviour. “It was, like, 2006.”

In an earlier episode of her podcast, Faris had talked about the incident without naming the director involved. In October 2017, shortly after the #MeToo movement gained traction with accusations against Harvey Weinstein, Faris said that during a film shoot she “was 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. And all I could do was giggle.”

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.”

Faris also said in 2017 that the same director had told her agent she had been hired for the film in part because of her “great legs”. She said: “Listen, that’s a fucking great compliment. I like my legs. But that sort of informed my whole experience with that whole project. I don’t think the male lead got hired because he had great legs. Therefore, I felt like I’m hired because of these elements – not because of [talent].”

Reitman, who directed Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, Twins and Kindergarten Cop, died in February.