Random Old Hollywood Actresses Were Ruthlessly Bullied By Men On Classic Movie Sets (16 items)

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  (#4) Maria Schneider

  • Dec. at 59 (1952-2011)

  1972's Last Tango in Paris features one of film history's most infamous sex scenes, in which Marlon Brando performs a sex act on his female co-star facedown on the floor with the help of a stick of butter. The movie was seen as obscene by many and several countries even banned it.

  Schneider revealed she felt manipulated by director Bernardo Bertolucci, and his frequent mood changes affected her deeply. The famous butter scene wasn't even in the original script, and Schneider recalled that Bertolucci neglected to tell her about it until filming was about to begin:

  I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that.

  Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie,' but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears.

  I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and by Bertolucci. After the scene, Marlon didn't console me or apologize. Thankfully, there was just one take.
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  (#6) Faye Dunaway

  • 78

  While many movie fans remember Chinatown as one of Jack Nicholson's best performances, Faye Dunaway had an entirely different experience behind the scenes. The actress had a reputation for being difficult going into the film, but her clashes with director Roman Polanski have become legendary. And he wasn't gentle about it. When she had a hair out of place, he stopped filming and physically pulled it out of her head.

  Dunaway recalled how Polanski even meddled with her makeup:

  Instead of explaining what he wanted, he started striding around saying, 'No, no, no! I want it like this!' And he grabbed the powder and began covering my face with it. The effect was awful, but his methods were worse. I came away from the encounter thinking he was a bully. I think what he did to me throughout the film bordered on sexual harassment.

  It was also rumored that after Polanski would not allow her a bathroom break, she urinated in a cup and threw it into his face. But when asked about it later in her career, Dunaway angrily denied it.
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  (#13) A Group Of Female Extras On Cleopatra Went On Strike To Avoid Harassment

  1963's Cleopatra caused plenty of scandal for kickstarting the affair between Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, but the female extras who played servants and slave girls in the film had their own troubles to deal with.

  As with many of the era's sweeping epics, the actresses' costumes were slightly revealing, and because so many extras were needed, many locals were hired to stand around in crowds. While filming in Italy, the women became the subject of unwanted advances and harassment from handsy locals. The situation became so bad that the actresses eventually went on strike until the studio would give them some sort of protection. A special guard was hired just to protect the actresses, and filming continued.
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  (#1) Tippi Hedren

  • 89

  Alfred Hitchcock worked with several blonde stars during his career, including Tippi Hedren. The former model was spotted in a television commercial by the director and cast as a lead in The Birds. Although Hitchcock's directing style was arguably abusive – he famously locked Hedren in a room with live, angry birds to get a realistic performance – she claims his attitude and actions towards her were much worse.

  According to Hedren, Hitchcock made attempts to control everything about her life. Sometimes he had someone follow her, he creeped out her daughter, and he even took Hedren's handwriting to an analyst. The episode with the live birds caused her to have a mental breakdown and she had to be hospitalized. Hitchcock allegedly made sexual advances towards Hedren as well, and when she refused and asked to be let out of her contract after Marnie a year later, he effectively ended her career.
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  (#15) Virginia Cherrill

  • Dec. at 88 (1908-1996)

  In the early 1930s, Charlie Chaplin cast an unknown 20-year-old named Virginia Cherrill in City Lights. Cherrill's innocent appeal caught his eye, and he gave her the part of a blind flower girl with whom his Little Tramp falls in love. But off screen, Chaplin did not like Cherrill at all. His animosity towards her could be due to the fact she turned down his sexual advances – reportedly the only actress in any of his films to do so.

  Chaplin's treatment of Cherrill turned overtly abusive when he made her do 342 takes of the scene where their characters first meet. He was known as a perfectionist when it came to his films, but this was a bit much. Chaplin even fired Cherrill at one point since he was so frustrated with her. However, he couldn't find a suitable replacement and had to hire her back. But the biggest blow against Cherrill may have been that Chaplin made millions off City Lights, while the actress was given a mere $5,000 for appearing in the film.
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  (#7) Lauren Bacall

  • Dec. at 90 (1924-2014)

  Howard Hawks once told Humphrey Bogart, "You are about the most insolent man on the screen and I'm going to make the girl a little more insolent than you are." He was referring to Lauren Bacall, whom the director discovered modeling in a magazine and cast alongside Bogart in To Have and Have Not. Bacall suffered from nerves on set, but thanks to Hawks's patience in shooting many takes, his new find became a star.

  But when Bacall and Bogart's chemistry grew off screen as well, Hawks felt betrayed and angry. He called Bacall ungrateful and threatened to sell her contract to another film production company. Years later, while filming The Big Sleep, Hawks even set Bacall up on a dinner date with Clark Gable to distract her from Bogart.

  Bacall remembered:

  [Hawks] had quite a crush on me, but of course he was tangling with the wrong people because there was no way he was going to get anywhere, with Bogie and me involved. He wanted to be my Svengali. He finally forgave me, but he couldn't handle it.

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