Minnie Driver said during a recent interview on Jameela Jamil’s “I Weigh” podcast that producers on her 1998 disaster movie “Hard Rain” allegedly told her not to wear a wetsuit while filming with rain machines because “they wanted to see my nipples” (via Entertainment Weekly). The film, directed by Mikael Salomon, opened a year after Driver’s breakthrough in “Good Will Hunting,” which earned her an Oscar nomination. Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater headlined “Hard Rain.”
“It’s set during this massive storm, there were huge rain machines. We shot crazy hours. It was tough,” Driver told Jamil. “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.”
Driver said she pushed back on the request but was made to feel like “an idiot” and that she didn’t “understand that this is what’s going on.”
“I remember saying this is wrong. I remember calling my agent,” Driver added. “I then remember it being like, boy, people wouldn’t speak to me on the set. I was so punished for it. It was leaked to the press that I called and complained about conditions, but it was as if there was nothing to complain about and I was just complaining. It’s this gaslighting. Media gaslighting that’s supported by the environment that you’re in. So you turn on yourself, like, ‘It’s my fault for saying anything you stupid big mouth. You should’ve shut up.’”
Driver did not name any of the producers by name. The film’s credited producers Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn did not return Variety‘s request for comment.
“Hard Rain” costume designer Kathleen Detoro told Variety that “full wetsuits and pieces” were “supplied to all cast and crew,” including “tops, bottoms and booties” and “no expense was spared to keep actors and crew as dry as possible in an action water film.”
“Producers never gave me those instructions,” she wrote in an email. “Actors don’t like wearing wetsuits under their clothes. Very uncomfortable. Made-to-order wet suits from Body Glove were purchased for all actors and crew. Actors received full wet suit: shortie wet suit, tops, bottoms and booties. It is up to actor to decide what parts they wear or don’t wear.”
Variety has reached out to Driver’s representatives for additional comment.
“Hard Rain” centered on a group’s mission to stop a gang from pulling off a robbery during a catastrophic storm. The cast also included Ed Asner, Richard Dysart and Betty White. The film was a box office flop, barely grossing $20 million worldwide on an estimated $70 million production budget.
