Minnie Driver has said she was not allowed to wear a wet suit when filming 1998 movie Hard Rain because producers ‘wanted to see my nipples’.
The Hollywood star appeared as Karen in the heist flick, also starring Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman, which is set during catastrophic flooding caused by a major storm.
However, the Good Will Hunting Actress alleges she was not afforded the same comforts as her male co-stars when making the movie and given a wetsuit for under her costume.
Recalling shooting Hard Rain in the 1990s, she revealed that the actors were ‘in 20 million gallons of water’.
‘There were huge rain machines. We shot crazy hours. It was tough – it was a tough movie – but everybody else could wear a wetsuit underneath their costume.
‘And I was told by the producers that I couldn’t because they wanted to see my nipples, and that there was no point in having the wet T-shirt if you couldn’t have what was underneath it.’
Discussing her experience on the I Weigh with Jameela Jamil podcast, she added: ‘It was very kind of plainly told, like “You’re an idiot if you don’t understand that this is what’s going on” and I remember saying this is wrong, I remember calling my agent.’
However, Driver claimed that there were then consequences to her speaking out, and that she was ‘so punished for it’.
She also alleged that ‘people wouldn’t speak to me on the set’ and that it was leaked to the press that she’d protested ‘but it was as if there were nothing to complain about and that I were just complaining’.
‘So it’s this sort of – not even existential – this gaslighting, media gaslighting, that’s supported by the environment that you are in. And then you have to stay in that environment, you know, we shot that movie for seven months,’ she recalled.
The Oscar-nominee added that it meant she eventually ‘turned’ on herself for speaking up.
‘And that goes in and then alters the way in which you kind of see yourself and your natural inclination to put your hand up and go “This isn’t right”.’
Upon release, Hard Rain, which was directed by Mikael Salomon, written by Speed’s Graham Yost and co-produced by star Slater, was not a commercial or critical success.
It made $19.9million on a $70m budget with its US release, leading to subsequent direct-to-video releases in other countries.
On reviews aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, it’s ranked rotten with 34% and dubbed ‘an implausible heist movie soaked in disaster movie trappings’.
Hard Rain later found more of a following thanks to the video rental market.
Metroc.o.uk has contacted reps for producers Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn, and co-producer Christian Slater, for comment.
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