Minnie Driver Recalls Harsh Treatment During “Hard Rain” Filming
In a candid conversation on Jameela Jamil’s SiriusXM podcast I Weigh with Jameela Jamil, Minnie Driver, now 54, opened up about her experience while filming the 1998 movie Hard Rain. The actress revealed some challenging moments she faced behind the scenes.
Minnie reminisced about the intense conditions on set, with colossal rain machines and grueling hours. Despite the harsh conditions, she found herself singled out when it came to her costume. While other actors were permitted to wear wetsuits underneath their attire for comfort during the rain-drenched scenes, she said she was denied this option. According to her, producers insisted on her not wearing a wetsuit to maintain the authenticity of her character’s appearance, including visible nipples under her wet T-shirt.
In her words, “There were huge rain machines. We shot crazy hours. It was tough, like, it was a tough movie, but 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.”
Expressing her discontent, Minnie confided in her agent, only to face repercussions. She recounted feeling isolated and shunned by colleagues after speaking up, with her complaints even leaking to the media. This backlash left her feeling gaslighted and questioning herself, leading to self-blame for speaking out.
As she reflected on her experience during the prolonged seven-month shoot, the actress acknowledged the detrimental impact such treatment had on her reputation in Hollywood, with her outspokenness.
“So it’s this sort of — not even existential, this gaslighting, media gaslighting that’s supported by the environment that you are in. And then you have to stay in that environment,” she she stated.
This isn’t the first time Minnie has shared her ordeal from the Hard Rain set. In a previous interview with The Times in 2022, she highlighted the repercussions of speaking out against mistreatment, emphasizing the industry’s tendency to vilify those who challenge the status quo.
“That followed me for a really long time, that whole idea of me being difficult. If you stood up and said, ‘This is unacceptable,’ which I routinely did, you were vilified,” she said.
Hard Rain, a combination of heist and disaster genres, failed to make a splash at the box office, garnering just $19 million domestically and lacking an international release.
