The biggest buzz of film-related speculation this week isn’t who will win trophies at the March 10 Academy Awards but which A-lister screamed at Rebecca Ferguson while they co-starred in a movie.
The Swedish actor, who is best known for the “Dune” and “Mission: Impossible” franchises, touched off this internet guessing game when she recently recounted her heated exchange with a co-star during an appearance on the “Reign With Josh Smith” podcast Tuesday, the New York Post and other outlets reported.
“I did a film with an absolute idiot of a co-star and it doesn’t matter who it was,” Ferguson began.
“I remember there was a moment when this human being was being so insecure and angry because this person couldn’t get the scenes out,” Ferguson shared. “And I think I was so vulnerable and uncomfortable that I got screamed at.
“But because this person was No. 1 on a call sheet, there was no safety net for me,” Ferguson added. “So no one had my back. And I would cry walking off set.”
But Ferguson said she rallied by the next day and stood up for herself. She told her co-star, “You get off my set. You can (expletive) off. I’m gonna work towards a tennis ball. I never want to see you again.” While producers told her, “You can’t do this to No. 1. We have to let this person be on set,’” she replied that “the person can turn around and I can act to the back of the head.”
Ferguson added that this happened “within my last 10 or 12 years.”
Everyone pretty much agrees that it’s wrong that Ferguson had to deal with such a big, raging, fragile ego, though. Hollywood has long been filled with big, raging, fragile egos. But her story still raises the question of who yelled at her.
As Decider writer Liz Kocan wrote, Ferguson provided few clues. She was careful not to use gender pronouns. The only thing she said is that the A-list actor or actress was no. 1 on the call sheet, the project was a movie and that the incident occurred 10 or 12 years ago.
The New York Post and Decider listed many of of Ferguson’s major co-stars. They include Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Hugh Grant, Michael Fassbender, Chris Hemsworth, Ewan McGregor, Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt.
It should be noted that, in her interview, Ferguson clarified that her screaming co-star was not Cruise or Jackman, her co-star in “The Greatest Showman.”
With that, here is a breakdown of the leading contenders to be Ferguson’s unnamed screaming co-star based on reports and social media speculation.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
The Hayward native, Ferguson’s co-star in the 2014 film “Hercules,” actually rushed to distance himself from her accusations. In a post on X, Johnson wrote, “Hate seeing this but love seeing her stand up to (expletive). Rebecca was my guardian angel sent from heaven on our set. I love that woman. I’d like to find out who did this.”
Unfortunately, Johnson may not have done himself any favors with this post, as Decider’s Kocan pointed out. On one hand, it’s “great that Johnson was quick to jump in with his support,” Kocan said. On the other hand, Johnson’s post may be an example of a self-serving actor “trying to get ahead of the story,” cynics said. Kocan also said that he’s “had his share of ego moments on movie sets, including his notorious rivalry with Vin Diesel, and the role he played in tanking the success of “Shazam‘s” sequel and his own Black Adam franchise.
Jake Gyllenhaal
For Decider’s Kocan, Gyllenhaal is a top contender, even though Gyllenhaal’s collaboration with Ferguson is more recent than 10 or 12 years ago. They co-starred in the 2017 film “Life” with Ryan Reynolds, who isn’t among the top contenders for the screamer.
Nonetheless, Kocan wrote how Gyllenhaal recently made news for his alleged demanding behavior in pre-production for the film “Suddenly.” That film’s director, Thomas Bidegain, told a French magazine about a “humiliating” situation involving Gyllenhaal, according to Variety. The magazine story also described how Gyllenhaal demanded multiple rewrites and rehearsed scenes in a mocking “Pepe Le Pew-like accent.”
During the press tour for “Life,” Gyllenhaal also made some arrogant comments about the art of acting, which may echo what Ferguson’s screaming co-star said to her: “You call yourself an actor?” Gyllenhaal told The Guardian in 2017 that it “seems to me that anybody feels they can be an actor nowadays.”
Hugh Grant
Ferguson was in the 2016 movie “Florence Foster Jenkins” with both Grant and Meryl Streep. Many social media sleuths are pointing the finger at the “Notting Hill” star who has developed a reputation for being curmudgeonly, the New York Post said.
“I looked into it a little … consensus on Reddit is that it was Hugh Grant in ‘Florence Foster Jenkins,'” one of these sleuths wrote on X. “The scolding words sounded feminine and insecure, but so is Hugh Grant. Multiple reports from female co-stars (say) that Hugh can be horrible to work with.”
When another person argued that Streep was the star of the film, still another pointed out that Grant could have been No. 1 on the call sheet the day that he filmed scenes that involved Ferguson.
Someone else wrote: “I’ll bet it was Hugh Grant, I’ve read stuff about him being really rude and hard to work with. He’s even said himself that his female costars probably hate him.”
Michael Fassbender
Fassbender and Ferguson co-starred in the poorly reviewed 2017 serial killer thriller, “The Snowman.” According to The Post, many movie fans believe that Fassbender, famous for his intense roles, was the screamer.
“It’s Michael Fassbender y’all,” one person declared. “This was definitely Fassbender,” another said.
But others defended Fassbender, based on the way that he and Ferguson appeared to get along well while doing publicity together for “The Snowman.” Still, one person pointed out: “People posting interviews with them together doesn’t prove a damn thing. Publicity tours are part of the job and they’re ACTORS.”
