19 Actors Who Accused Their Costars Of Behaving Like Monsters On-Set

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1. Alexa Nikolas opened up in 2019 about Jamie Lynn Spears and other Zoey 101 cast members allegedly bullying her on the set of the teen show. Nikolas was notably written out of the show after Season 2.

In addition to claims of bullying tactics like exclusion and mocking, Nikolas also revealed in 2022 that she was once lured into a room with Jamie Lynn and her sister Britney Spears under false pretenses, deliberately separated from her mother. Britney Spears reportedly screamed at Nikolas and threatened her future in Hollywood.

Nikolas says she was left traumatized by the experience, sobbing in the fetal position in her trailer. The show's creator Dan Schneider allegedly asked her to get back on set and gave her a DVD player to get her to stop crying.

Nikolas later accused Jamie Lynn of lying about her in her memoir, and accused Nickelodeon of failing to protect her as a child star, calling her experience there "traumatic." She also called Schneider “the creator of childhood trauma." Schneider has been accused of sexualizing and mistreating his young stars.

2. Another celeb accused of bullying on set is Lea Michele. After guest star Samantha Marie Ware accused Michele of racist bullying involving “traumatic microaggressions," Amber Riley seemed to support the claims after posting a GIF of her sipping tea, and Alex Newell also took to social media to support Ware's claims. Heather Morris later revealed there was a "hush hush" atmosphere about Lea's "scary" on-set behavior.

Michele apologized for her behavior in response to the backlash. “I clearly acted in ways which hurt other people. Whether it was my privileged position and perspective that caused me to be perceived as insensitive or inappropriate at times or whether it was just my immaturity and me just being unnecessarily difficult, I apologize for my behavior and for any pain which I have caused. We all can grow and change, and I have definitely used these past several months to reflect on my own shortcomings.”

3. John Leguizamo says costar Steven Seagal bullied him and others during Executive Decision, and claims he even physically assaulted Leguizamo during the first day of rehearsals.

"He came in and was like, [low, breathy voice] 'I'm in command. What I say is law.' ... Who comes into rehearsal and says that shit? So, I started laughing, and he slammed me with an aikido elbow against a brick wall and knocked all the air out of me," Leguizamo continued.

4. David Yost, who memorably played the blue power ranger in the '90s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, says he was bullied so badly that he had to leave the show, shortly thereafter experiencing a nervous breakdown. Yost claimed the bullying — including being called anti-gay slurs like the f-slur — was incessant, and came from creators, producers, writers, and directors. "Basically, I just felt like I was continually being told I was not worthy of being where I am because I'm a gay person. And I'm not supposed to be an actor. And I'm not a superhero," he later said, revealing the bullying caused him to become suicidal.

Yost also specifically mentioned a comment from costar Bryan Cranston (though, it should be noted, Cranston only did voiceover work on the show and was not a part of this daily bullying). In a 2009 interview, Cranston called Yost/the blue power ranger the "'fey' one." "When I read that interview, which took place about a year before I came out publicly, it really hurt me," Yost said. "In his mind, he probably thinks he was being funny, but that's the kind of thing that's not funny, and that's the kind of thing I would hear while I was working on set... it gets to you." Cranston later apologized to the actor.

5. Decades after the '80s sitcom Charles in Charge, star Scott Baio was accused of sexual harassment by two of his then-teenaged costars: Alexander Polinsky and Nicole Eggert.

Polinsky alleged that Baio (who played a live-in babysitter on the show) assaulted and harassed him from the ages of 12–15, showing his genitals to Polinsky, pulling down Polinsky's pants on set, and calling him anti-gay slurs as well as describing explicit gay sex acts. The bullying and harassment allegedly turned physical when Baio threw hot tea in his face. Baio denied the claims, saying, “For reasons I don’t understand, I am the target of false claims that threaten everything that is important in my life."

6. Eggert accused Baio of molestation during her time on the show, which began when she was 14. The abuse allegedly continued until Eggert was 17, with Baio telling Eggert if she told anyone, the show would end and they would all be out of jobs. Baio has denied any inappropriate touching and says they had a onetime consensual encounter when Eggert was 18.

7. Jerry Lewis was accused of sexual harassment after his death. Karen Sharpe, who appeared with Lewis in The Disorderly Orderly, said she was forced to model her wardrobe for Lewis. “He grabbed me. He began to fondle me. He unzipped his pants," Sharpe claimed. She says he then isolated her, asking that no one else speak to her on set.

8. Hope Holiday also accused Lewis of assault, saying that he brought her into his office and locked the door during her first day on set of The Ladies Man. “He starts to talk dirty to me, and as he’s talking, the pants open, and the ugly thing came out and he starts to masturbate," Holiday revealed.

9. In 2017, Trace Lysette accused Jeffrey Tambor of sexual harassment on the set of Transparent, describing one incident where he said, "I want to attack you sexually" before filming a scene, then "waddled over to me in his pajamas and put his feet on top of mine, and started these little, like, thrusts on my hip. They were discreet and insidious and creepy. I felt his genitals on me. And I pushed him off.”

Tambor's ensuing statement read that he had "never been a predator" but acknowledged he could be "volatile and ill-tempered" and "express my opinions harshly and without tact." Tambor had previously been accused of sexual harassment by his former assistant Van Barnes, which Tambor had called "baseless allegations" from a "former disgruntled assistant." He was fired from the Amazon series after an investigation, which Tambor called “deeply flawed and biased."

10. Rebel Wilson recently opened up about "awful and disgusting" sexual harassment from a male costar, though she did not name who. "He called me into a room and pulled down his pants," she revealed, saying the costar then asked her to perform a sexual act. Afraid of retaliation and wanting to be a "professional," Wilson stayed on the project, though she said, "Definitely amongst industry circles, I made sure people knew what happened."

She had also separately revealed that a male costar "in a position of power asked me to go into a room with him and then asked me repeatedly to stick my finger up his ass. All whilst his male 'friends' tried to film the incident on their iPhones and laughed. I repeatedly said no and eventually got out of the room."

11. Lili Reinhart also says she was sexually harassed by an unnamed costar early in her career. "I was a teenager working on a project when I started to have a crush on a guy I was working with," she explained in a Tumblr post. "He was pretty significantly older than me, but I thought of myself as mature so it didn’t seem like a big deal." Reinhart says that he later tried to force himself on her. "I had to stop him and say, 'No, I don’t want that,' and 'I can’t do that.' I physically walked away from the situation before it could get any worse. I remember feeling like this was a scene right out of a horror movie."

After Reinhart tried to bring up his behavior to him, he "proceeded to tell me that it was my fault for leading him on. Saying that 'I seemed like a sexual girl and that I’d be down for it.' That I misled him. Days following, he grew angry at the situation and became defensive about it and his actions. Claiming that I was 'a tease' and 'the most manipulative woman he’d ever met.'" Reinhart said she kept quiet because she didn't feel people would believe her, and because her costar had a bigger role and "more power" in the project. "If I said something, maybe the production would be halted… people would be put out of work. I would be looked at as dramatic and a diva; no one would want to work with me again."

12. Bill Cosby has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by a number of women — including The Cosby Show costars Lili Bernard and Eden Tirl. Bernard alleged that Cosby had drugged and raped her on multiple occasions in the '90s, while Tirl alleged that in 1989, Cosby touched her without consent in his dressing room. Cosby was convicted in 2018 on multiple counts of sexual assault (after being accused by over 50 women), though this was overturned in 2021.

13. Daniel Franzese (best known for playing Damian in Mean Girls) accused Bully costar Bijou Phillips of being an actual bully on the set of the film. “She body-shamed me and ridiculed me about my sexuality and physically assaulted me," he said, revealing he was scared to speak up and lose his job.

She later reportedly gave Franzese an insincere apology before twisting his nipple. During another scene, Franzese claims Phillips put her dirty feet on his neck and then kicked him. "To this day, I’m not even sure if she gave me a concussion because I was lightheaded and dizzy for a while,” he said, revealing the whole experience gave him PTSD and caused him to remain closeted.

14. Geena Davis accused Bill Murray of making her lie in a bed while he used a massage device on her while they were costarring in Quick Change together, despite her saying no multiple times. She also said he verbally berated many in the cast and crew, including Davis herself. She's also discussed inappropriate behavior during the press tour for the film.

15. In fact, Murray has been accused of bad behavior by a number of costars, including Seth Green, who appeared with Murray on Saturday Night Live when Green was just 9. He was sitting on the arm of Murray's chair backstage when he says Murray picked him up, dangled him over the trash can, and said "the trash goes in the trash can." Green flailed until he hit Murray in the balls, causing Murray to drop him and Green to fall into the trash can, which fell over. Green then ran into his dressing room, hid under the table, and cried.

16. Murray has also been accused of “inexcusable and unacceptable” comments toward Lucy Liu during rehearsals for their film Charlie's Angels.

17. Eliza Dushku was fired from the series Bull after complaining about sexual harassment from her costar Michael Weatherly. Dushku detailed how she “found myself the brunt of crude, sexualized, and lewd verbal assaults" and "suffered near constant sexual harassment" from Weatherly. "This was beyond anything I had experienced in my 30-year career," she said.

He allegedly called her "Legs" and "would smell [her] and [leeringly look her] up and down. Off script, in front of about 100 crew members and cast members, he once said that he would take [her] to his ‘rape’ van and use lube and long phallic things on me and take [her] over his knee and spank [her] like a little girl.”

Weatherly later apologized for his comments, saying, "During the course of taping our show, I made some jokes mocking some lines in the script. When Eliza told me that she wasn’t comfortable with my language and attempt at humor, I was mortified to have offended her and immediately apologized. After reflecting on this further, I better understand that what I said was both not funny and not appropriate, and I am sorry and regret the pain this caused Eliza." Dushku was later paid a $9.5-million settlement over these claims of harassment.

18. While star Judy Garland herself never publicly stated these allegations, her ex-husband Sid Luft wrote in his memoir that the actors playing the munchkins on the set of The Wizard of Oz would put their hands up her skirt. Garland was 16, and many of the men were in their 40s.

19. And finally, according to the documentary Celluloid Crime of the Century and the book Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, Sandra Peabody (who went by the name Sandra Cassel at the time) was horribly mistreated by her male costars on the set of The Last House on the Left. Marc Sheffler admitted to threatening to throw her off a cliff to try to rile her up for a scene (though in 2018 he stated she was not in real danger), and David Hess allegedly threatened to actually assault her in a rape scene they were about to film.

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