Rebecca Ferguson is reflecting on a time when a former co-star screamed at her.
In an interview on the Reign With Josh Smith podcast, the Dune: Part Two actress recalled a co-star growing upset on set which resulted in them screaming at her. Ferguson did not name the film set this happened on nor the co-star though she confirmed it was not Hugh Jackman or Tom Cruise.
“I did a film with an absolute idiot of a co-star — doesn’t matter who it is. I’m going to try not to give this away, but I remember there was a moment, and this human being was being so insecure and angry because this person couldn’t get the scenes out. And I think I was so vulnerable and uncomfortable that I got screamed at,” she said.
She explained that “because this person was number one on the call sheet, there was no safety net” for her. “So no one had my back. And I would cry walking off set,” Ferguson said. “This person would literally look at me in front of the whole crew and say, ‘You call yourself an actor? This is what I have to work with? What is this?’ And I stood there just breaking.”
Ferguson said she felt “scared” after the ordeal and confronted her co-star, noting it was the first time she spoke up for herself as an actor. “I looked at this person, and I said, ‘You get off my set. You can F off. I’m gonna work towards a tennis ball. I never want to see you again.’”
After the producers informed her she couldn’t do that to the “number one” and the person would have to remain on set, Ferguson said, “The person can turn around, and I can act to the back of the head.” And that’s what she did. “I remember thinking that time I was so scared. I feel it now when I’m saying it,” she continued. “But I thought, ‘It shouldn’t have to be that way.’”
When she later confronted the director about what was happening, she recalled the director telling her, “You’re right. I am not taking care of everyone else. I’m trying to fluff this person because it’s so unstable.”
“It was great from that moment, but it took so long for me to get to that,” she said. “From that moment, I have never let myself get to a point when I’ve got home and gone, ‘Why did that happen?’”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who worked with Ferguson on the 2014 film Hercules, weighed in on the actress’s comments writing on X, formerly Twitter, “Hate seeing this but love seeing her stand up to bullshit. Rebecca was my guardian angel sent from heaven on our set. I love that woman. I’d like to find out who did this.”
