Minnie Driver claims she was “punished” on the set of ‘Hard Rain’
After a breakthrough in 1997 that saw her lend support in cult favourite black comedy Grosse Pointe Blank and acclaimed drama Good Will Hunting, Minnie Driver decided that making a foray into the world of action-packed blockbusters was a career step worth taking.
In her first on-screen role after receiving an Academy Award nomination in the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ category for the aforementioned Matt Damon and Ben Affleck-penned movie, Driver starred opposite Christian Slater and Morgan Freeman in Mikael Salomon’s Hard Rain.
Rising waters place the entire town of Huntingburg into a state of emergency, matters complicated by Freeman’s crew of thieves heisting millions of dollars from an armoured transport vehicle. Slater’s Tom makes it his mission to stop them, with Driver’s Karen proving to be his only ally.
The movie was a huge flop that barely even recouped a quarter of its budget from cinemas, and while there’s a lot of folks willing to defend it to the death as an underrated masterpiece, Driver’s experience was horrendous.
As the actor explained on Jameela Jamil’s I Weigh podcast, “Everybody else could wear a wetsuit underneath their costume, but I was told by the producers that I couldn’t because they wanted to see my nipples.”
Furthermore, Driver also claims to have been told “there was no point in having the wet t-shirt if you couldn’t have what was underneath it.”
Coming off the back of an Oscar-nominated performance that elevated her star to new heights in Hollywood, following it up with a role where the people in charge of the production were adamant her nipples be visible to the audience was a sign of disrespect. Additionally, Driver’s attempts to push back on the request falling on deaf ears.
“I remember saying this is wrong. I remember calling my agent,” she continued. “I then remember it being like, boy, people wouldn’t speak to me on the set.”
Driver felt as though she was “so punished” for daring to speak out against the producers, suggesting “it was leaked to the press that I called and complained about conditions” she was working under, intimating she was a victim of “media gaslighting that’s supported by the environment that you’re in.”
Based on the numbers, not a lot of people bothered to see Hard Rain during its theatrical run, but Driver was nonetheless left feeling as though “it’s my fault for saying anything,” underlining her point about being gaslit into thinking she was in the wrong.
Listen to Driver on I Weigh below.
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