Anna Faris reveals on-set incident: 'He slapped my ass'

Anna Faris has revealed she once had her ass slapped by a director on the set of a movie. Photo/Getty

Anna Faris felt "so small" when she was sexually harassed by a male director.

The 40-year-old star has claimed she was slapped on the bottom by a director - who she has chosen not to name - and could only "giggle" when it happened as she didn't know how to react in front of all the film's crew.

Speaking in her podcast Anna Faris is Unqualified, she shared: "I was doing a scene where I was on a ladder and I was supposed to be taking books off a shelf and he slapped my ass in front of the crew so hard. And all I could do was giggle. I remember looking around and I remember seeing the crew members being like, 'Wait, what are you going to do about that? That seemed weird.'

"And that's how I dismissed it. I was like, 'Well, this isn't a thing. Like, it's not that big of a deal. Buck up, Faris. Like, just giggle.' But it made me feel small. He wouldn't have done that to the lead male."

And the Mom star chose to laugh it off because she didn't want to be "labelled a bitch or difficult".

She added: "We're conditioned to giggle. But also, if we were to do anything else, we'd be labelled a bitch or difficult. That would be the best of circumstances.

"I guess what I do is I laugh. It puts everyone at ease when I feel incredibly uncomfortable. That's the defense mode you go into."

And Anna has also revealed she was told she was hired for that same part because she had "great legs".

She explained: "Listen, that's a f***ing great compliment. I like my legs. But that sort of informed my whole experience with that whole project. I don't think the male lead got hired because he had great legs. Therefore I felt like I'm hired because of these elements - not because of [talent]."

- Bang! Showbiz