“It was grim”: Ben Affleck’s Good Will Hunting Co-Star Minnie Driver Had to Fake an Orgasm for Room Full of Male Execs Before Becoming an Academy Award Nominee
The 1995’s Circle of Friends famed Minnie Driver shared some disgusting audition experiences recently. The Emmy as well as the Oscar-nominated actress is one of the best in the business. Her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting alongside Ben Affleck garnered her a lot of positive reviews. Watching her in the films like Cinderella, Rosaline, and Chevalier, and in small amounts, Will & Grace mesmerized the audience deeply. She now has a successful podcast called Minnie Questions With Minnie Driver and has written a memoir Managing Expectations.
The topic discussed here has also been mentioned in her book in detail. She recalls this incident as one of the most awkward moments of her life. In the most recent The Guardian interview her answer remained unchanged when asked about the most embarrassing moment of her life.
Minnie Driver’s most embarrassing moment of her life
When asked what the most embarrassing moment of her life is, Minnie Driver un-hesitantly answered,
“When I was starting out, in the early 90s, I had to fake an orgasm in a room full of male ad execs at an audition for a chocolate bar ad. It was grim.”
The memoir discusses this incident in detail. In Managing Expectations, she wrote while starting out she once tried auditioning for a chocolate bar ad. The audition took place in her hometown London itself, her name wasn’t known by many back then, and thus she had to work pretty hard to get even the smallest of parts. Driver paints the scene with her words as intimidating, as a dozen of men were sitting on the couches. The actors trying out for the gig received no script or direction prior to entering the room. It was all very nerve-wracking for her. Then all of a sudden the director said,
“You’ve seen the movie When Harry Met Sally?–You know the scene where she fakes an orgasm? OK. Eat a piece of chocolate and do that.”
She was startled at first and was a bit confused and them joking about it made it even worse. Comments like “Yes. Unless you fancy having a real one.” made her skin crawl after her questioning his direction and asking what the relation of both scenarios was. She was then asked to do the scene twice one in a slightly grand manner than the other. Minnie Driver dreaded each second of it and wanted to warn every other actress waiting in line for their chance. She describes it as,
“vying for an opportunity that was actually humiliation dressed up in a pick-me! outfit” or “being lunchtime entertainment for a bunch of pervy execs.”
But she couldn’t gather the courage to say it to their faces. Despite being humiliated, she did what was required of her and ran out of the building.
Why Minnie Driver regrets this so much?
After doing the scene one time Minnie Driver exclaimed she couldn’t possibly do it again and would throw up if she did so. The director then said,
“Well, all the other girls have apparently very much enjoyed this.”
After that Driver delivered a firey mic drop-worthy one-liner and exited the building. She said,
“They were faking it.”
She was greeted with a harsh message on her answering machine when she reached home. The message called her “difficult” for protesting at the absurdity of the moment. Driver said she was marked or branded as a,
“Branded with a scarlet D that often comes with saying ‘no’ as an actress.”
She had to face the repercussions for being “difficult” to work with and deemed as a diva. She also stated when the #MeToo movement was in its rise,
“I would categorically put this in some version of the #MeToo world I grew up in,”
Driver further added,
“I f–king did it. I knew it was wrong, and I still did it. I was embarrassed and mortified, and I didn’t understand it until years later. That feeling didn’t leave me for a long time. And to this day, I wish someone in that room had stood up and said, ‘This is outrageous,’ because these guys were getting their jollies off, watching woman after woman pretend to have an orgasm. I don’t think it would happen today, thank goodness, which is some kind of progress.”
Although she is regretful, she didn’t do more that day, she is glad that people can now protest to these acts freely and call the harassers out openly.
Source: The Guardian
