“Prison Break” actress Sarah Wayne Callies alleged there was “rampant misogyny” on the set of the show, and alleged that one of her male co-stars went as far as spitting in her face.
Callies appeared on a recent episode of Rachel Bilson’s podcast, “Broad Ideas,” and detailed some of her experiences while filming the hit Fox drama. “I’ve had an actor on that show spit in my face. And I was like, ‘Holy shit,'” she said. She told hosts Bilson and Olivia Allen that it took her several years to watch her five-season run on “Prison Break,” because she was initially unable to watch “beyond the parts that were toxic and painful.”
“Prison Break” originally ran from 2005 to 2009 before it was revived again in 2017. The actress said that she has recently had the opportunity to reevaluate incidents of misogyny she had to contend with while making the show, and she has been reflecting on what she endured on-set. Callies called her success a “double-edged sword,” as she described her experience.
“I would go home some nights and have to spend an hour talking my husband out of going to hospitalize somebody,” she said on the podcast.
SAN DIEGO, CA – JULY 22: Sarah Wayne Callies at Entertainment Weekly’s annual Comic-Con party in celebration of Comic-Con 2017 at Float at Hard Rock Hotel San Diego on July 22, 2017 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Joe Scarnici/FilmMagic)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 25: Actors Dominic Purcell (L) and Sarah Wayne Callies attend together1heart launch party hosted by AnnaLynne McCord at Sofitel Hotel on June 25, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)
She said “some of the guys were great, and some of them were totally gentlemen,” noting that only a few men made the experience a challenging one for her.
Callies admitted that she feared re-watching the show would send her “into a spiral” of wondering, “What did I let them do to me? What did I let them say to me? What did I put up with? What did I not report?” (RELATED: Andy Cohen Breaks Silence On Sexual Harassment Allegations)
SAN DIEGO, CA – JULY 23: Actress Sarah Wayne Callies attends Entertainment Weekly’s Comic-Con Bash held at Float, Hard Rock Hotel San Diego on July 23, 2016 in San Diego, California sponsored by HBO. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Getty Images for Entertainment Weekly)
The actress didn’t reveal the identity of the man that spat in her face, but she promised to dive further into the details on her own podcast, at some point.
