Renée Zellweger has shared her account of a producer who allegedly once offered her wine in an attempt to get her to remove her clothes on set.
The Oscar-winning actor said the incident occurred early in her career, but did not name the producer or the film she was working on.
She also spoke about other instances where she experienced sexism at work.
“There have been times I have been in, you know, on set where a producer’s ready for me to go ahead and take my clothes off,” Zellweger told Harper’s Bazaar for its April cover story.
The producer in the particular incident she recalled apparently told her: “Here, drink this wine, ’cause then you’ll do it.”
“And, you know, I’m not gonna take that wine, but I would like a phone. ’Cause I have a phone call I need to make right now,” Zellweger said.
She also mentioned that in her first credited film role, 1994’s Reality Bites, she found out years late that some producers and crew members had referred to her character Tami as “Tami Bimbo” behind her back.
The Harper’s Bazaar journalist noted that despite Zellweger’s experience, she was “adamant” that she has never been a victim of workplace abuse, unlike many of her counterparts who have come forward since the beginning of the #MeToo movement.
The actor’s latest project is a starring role as real-life convicted killer Pam Hupp in NBC’s new limited series The Thing About Pam, for which she looks almost unrecognisable behind a variety of prosthetics and padding.
Zellweger previously said that the decision to wear padding instead of gaining weight for the role was made because she was playing a real person and not a character.
“I know the results of a ‘Bridget Jones’ experience and this is not a fictional character who’s up to my interpretation and just seeing what happens,” she said.
