Warning: Some entries mention sexual assault.
After working long days together on set, actors often grow really close to their costars. More than just coworkers, they become good friends, and good friends stand up for each other.
Here are 15 times costars defended each other on set:
1. On Ian McKellen's first day filming Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny, Alan Rickman "didn't like the patronizing, bullying tone of a note which the director gave [Ian]." Ian told the Guardian, "Alan, seeing I was a little crestfallen, delivered a quiet, concise résumé of my career and loudly demanded that the director up his game."
He continued, "Behind his starry insouciance and careless elegance, behind that mournful face, which was just as beautiful when wracked with mirth, there was a super-active spirit, questing and achieving, a superhero, unassuming but deadly effective."
2. On her podcast Drama Queens, Hilarie Burton said that, while One Tree Hill was filming on location in Texas, Chad Michael Murray intervened when he saw series creator and showrunner Mark Schwahn allegedly assault her at a bar. She said, "Chad walked up and goes, 'What are you doing?' He said that to our boss in the bar… He watched our boss grab me in front of a lot of people, and you know, Chad didn't have anything to lose 'cause he knew our boss hated him anyway."
Hilarie continued, "A lot of people had a lot to lose, so you don't speak up when you have a lot to lose. But [our boss] felt so comfortable that that was not something that he had a problem with. [He thought], 'I can do whatever I want to her in public with her boyfriend standing there.'"
Her cohost and costar Sophia Bush said, "[Chad] was protected as the No. 1 on the call sheet. He had the most power, so he could come up and shove our boss off you and get in a fight. And I'm glad that he did. I want everybody to follow that lead."
3. When Eva Longoria was being bullied by a Desperate Housewives coworker, she "dreaded the days [she] had to work with that person because it was pure torture" until Felicity Huffman "told the bully 'enough,' and it all stopped."
In a letter to the judge who presided over Felicity's college admissions scandal trial, Eva wrote, "Felicity could feel that I was riddled with anxiety even though I never complained or mentioned the abuse to anyone."
4. While Jumanji was filming, the producers wanted child actors Kirsten Dunst and Bradley Pierce to work overtime, which isn't legally permitted for kids. However, once Robin Williams heard, he pulled aside director Joe Johnston and the producers 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."
Bradley told CBCListen, "For all the dollars that would have cost, nobody would have stood up the way he did. In addition to being warm, generous, and kind, he was also very protective."
5. When 21 Bridges was still in its casting stages, producer/lead actor Chadwick Boseman really wanted Sienna Miller for the female lead, but she "asked for a number that the studio wouldn't get to." She told Empire, "Chadwick ended up donating some of his salary to get me to the number that I had asked for. He said that that was what I deserved to be paid."
She continued, "It was about the most astounding thing that I've experienced. That kind of thing just doesn't happen. He said, 'You're getting paid what you deserve, and what you're worth.' It's just unfathomable to imagine another man in that town behaving that graciously or respectfully. In the aftermath of this, I've told other male actor friends of mine that story, and they all go very, very quiet and go home and probably have to sit and think about things for a while. But there was no showiness, it was, 'Of course I'll get you to that number, because that's what you should be paid.'"
6. While shooting American Hustle, Amy Adams was "really just devastated on set," and director David O. Russell made her cry. Her costar Christian Bale reportedly intervened, telling him to "back off."
Christian told GQ, "If I can have some sense of understanding of where it's coming from, then I do tend to attempt to be a mediator. That's just in my nature, to try to say, 'Hey, come on, let’s go and sit down and figure that out. There's gotta be a way of making this all work.'"
7. When Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne had to film a sexual assault scene for What's Love Got to Do with It, she didn't want to "do it over and over and over again for 16 hours." She told Variety, "I knew I couldn't ask the director because, here I am as a new actor, but I could talk to Laurence. So Laurence asked me, 'How many times you want to do this?' And I looked at him, he took my hand, and I said, 'Four or five.' And then he told the director, like, 'Hey man, we’re just going to do this four times. So let's make sure we get the cameras right, and we're going to keep them outside of the studio.'"
She continued, "It ended up being what I thought was a beautiful juxtaposition between that violent act and the tranquility of fish floating by unaware — a metaphor for something appearing like one thing on the outside, but, behind the scenes, another story being told."
8. On the set of Brideshead Revisited, a producer asked Hayley Atwell to lose weight. So, Emma Thompson told them, "If you speak to her about this again, on any level, I will leave this picture. You are never to do that."
On the Swedish talk show Skavlan, Emma said, "It's evil what's happening and what's going on there, and it's getting worse... Sometimes there are just some subjects that you absolutely have to make noise about because it's so tedious, and it's gone on and on."
9. When a member of the Yellowjackets production team criticized Melanie Lynskey's body, Christina Ricci, Tawny Cypress, and Juliette Lewis came to her defense. Juliette even wrote the producers a letter regarding the situation.
Melanie told Rolling Stone, "It was really important to me for [my character Shauna] to not ever comment on my body, to not have me putting a dress on and being like, 'I wish I looked a bit better.' I did find it important that this character is just comfortable and sexual and not thinking or talking about it, because I want women to be able to watch it and be like, 'Wow, she looks like me, and nobody's saying she's the fat one.' That representation is important."
10. After Bryce Dallas Howard told her Jurassic World Dominion costar Chris Pratt that she was paid "so much less" than him, he offered to negotiate on her behalf regarding deals that hadn't been sealed yet, such as rides and games. He told her, "You guys don't even have to do anything. I'm gonna do all the negotiating. We're gonna be paid the same, and you don't have to think about this, Bryce."
She told Insider, "And I love him so much for doing that. I really do, because I've been paid more for those kinds of things than I ever was for the movie."
11. Michelle Rodriguez almost quit The Fast and the Furious because she didn't think it was realistic for her character to cheat on her boyfriend. When Vin Diesel found her crying over it, he pulled her aside and told her, "I got your back. Chill out and let me handle this, and you're right — it makes me look bad anyway."
She told the Daily Beast, "And there you go. That was the beginning of the Letty fairytale."
12. In 2017, Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer were discussing gender pay equity on a comedy project they were considering. Octavia told Jessica that women of color "make far less than white women" and shared her own experiences, so Jessica came up with the idea for the two of them to tie themselves together in negotiations so they'd both get better deals.
On a "Women Breaking Barriers" panel at Sundance in 2018, Octavia said, "I love that woman because she's walking the walk, and she's actually talking the talk... She said, 'Octavia, we're gonna get you paid on this film. ... You and I are gonna be tied together, we're gonna be Favored Nations, and we're gonna make the same thing, and you're gonna make that amount,' and fast-forward to last week, we're making five times what we asked for."
On Twitter, Jessica said, "She had been underpaid for so long. When I discovered that, I realized that I could tie her deal to mine to bring up her quote. Men should start doing this with their female costars."
13. On the Living Single set, "word came down that [the four female leads] needed to lose weight." It "really angered" Queen Latifah, so she replied, "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."
She told Entertainment Tonight, "Here we are, four different women, four different body types, and we needed to lose weight. If anything, it angered me and disheartened me."
14. When an extra on the Three Kings set was too nervous to grab George Clooney and push him, director David O. Russell allegedly grabbed him, shoved him to the ground, kicked him, and screamed, "Do you want to be in this fucking movie? Then throw him to the fucking ground!" George told Playboy, "I went over and put my arm around him. I said, 'David, it's a big day. But you can't shove, push, or humiliate people who aren't allowed to defend themselves.'"
George alleged that, then, the director taunted him, then started a physical fight, which lasted until one of the actor's friends pulled him away.
He said, "Finally, he apologized, but I walked away. By then the Warner Bros. guys were freaking out. David sort of pouted through the rest of the shoot, and we finished the movie, but it was truly, without exception, the worst experience of my life."
This situation allegedly followed several other incidents where George defended crew members, including a camera-car driver he knew from high school and a script supervisor who'd been reduced to tears, from David's outbursts.
15. And finally, during Nathalie Emmanuel's first season of Game of Thrones, her "costume was pretty revealing, and there was an incident with a supporting actor who made a comment about it on set." She told Vogue, "Emilia [Clarke] straightaway had my back. It got handled."
Nathalie continued, "She and I always looked out for each other."
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
EXmas, starring Leighton Meester and Robbie Amell, is streaming now for free on Freevee.
