Here are 11 times actors stood up for their costars on set:
1.
In a 2024 Instagram post, Skyler Samuels praised her Scream Queens costar Keke Palmer for speaking out about her experience with an unnamed costar who allegedly made a racist remark when Keke stepped in to diffuse a disagreement. Skyler wrote, “That’s what Keke does, she speaks up and stands up, for herself and others. Scream Queens was a very challenging show to make. Keke was one of the only people who stood up for me.”
2.
In 2020, Game of Thrones actor Nathalie Emmanuel told British Vogue, “In my first season, my costume was pretty revealing, and there was an incident with an extra who made a comment about it on set — I mean, typical — and Emilia [Clarke] straightaway had my back. It got handled.”
3.
In 2024, Sally Field told Vulture that, while filming Steel Magnolias, director Herbert Ross was “very, very, very hard on Julia [Roberts].” However, the other women looked out for her. Sally said, “We would all rally around Julia, because she was the baby. She was sort of the newcomer. And she was wonderful, and he just picked on her. It was awful.”
4.
On a 2023 episode of her podcast Drama Queen, Hilarie Burton Morgan [who’s one of 18 women who’ve accused One Tree Hill showrunner Mark Mark Schwahn of sexual assault and harassment, per Variety] said that Chad Michael Murray stopped their “boss” [whom she didn’t name] from allegedly grabbing her at a bar. She said, “Chad walked up and goes, ‘What are you doing?’ He said that to our boss in the bar.”
5.
In a letter to the judge for her Desperate Housewives costar Felicity Huffman’s college admissions scandal trial, Eva Longoria reportedly wrote, “I know I would not have survived those 10 years it wasn’t for the friendship of Felicity. There was a time I was being bullied at work by a co-worker. I dreaded the days I had to work with that person because it was pure torture. Until one day, Felicity told the bully ‘Enough,’ and it all stopped.”
6.
In 2022, Melanie Lynskey told Rolling Stone that, on the Yellowjackets set, a production member allegedly criticized her body. She said, “They were asking me, ‘What do you plan to do? I’m sure the producers will get you a trainer. They’d love to help you with this.'” However, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, and Tawny Cypress supported her. Juliette even wrote the producers a letter concerning the situation.
7.
In 2021, Queen Latifah told Entertainment Tonight, “I can remember specifically doing Living Single and the word came down that we needed to lose weight. Here we are, four different women, four different body types and we needed to lose weight. If anything it angered me and disheartened me, but it really angered me. I said, ‘We are what women look like, we’re not going to lose weight for whoever’s idea of what we’re supposed to look like.'”
8.
During a 2017 appearance on the Swedish show Skavlan, Emma Thompson said, “There was a wonderful actress in a film I did called Brideshead Revisited. The producer said to her, ‘Will you lose some weight?’ And she was absolutely exquisite! I said to them, ‘If you speak to her about this again, on any level, I will leave this picture. You are never to do that.”
9.
In 2016, Ian McKellen told the Guardian, “On my first day before the camera [for Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny], [Alan Rickman] didn’t like the patronizing, bullying tone of a note which the director gave me. Alan, seeing I was a little crestfallen, delivered a quiet, concise resumé of my career and loudly demanded that the director up his game.”
10.
In 2022, Christian Bale confirmed to GQ, that he played “mediator” between Amy Adams and director David O. Russell (who made her cry on set).
11.
And finally, in 2023, Bradley Pierce, who was 13 when he filmed Jumanji, told CBCListen, “Children can only be on set for a number of hours. The producers had approached our parents and said, ‘Is there any way we can do a bit of overtime to get it done?'” However, when Robin Williams “caught wind of these conversations,” he “pulled the director [Joe Johnston] and producers aside” and told them, “No, we are not doing any extra time. You’re going to let everybody out now, and we’re going to come back next week.”
Which costar friendship is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
