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]
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