Melissa McCarthy recently remembered working on a set that was so "hostile" it made her "physically ill."
The 52-year-old actor, who currently stars as the evil sea-witch Ursula in the live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid," discussed her experience during an interview with The Observer.
"I did work for someone once who ran such a volatile, hostile set that it made me physically ill," she told the publication. "My eyes were swelling up. I was absorbing all of this nuttiness."
McCarthy, without revealing names, said one person was at the root of all the tensions on the set.
"There were people weeping, visibly so upset by this one person. And I think that's why the manipulation worked, because to get to me, this person would fire people I loved, which kept me quiet. It was very effective," she said.
"Then one day, I was like, 'It stops today!' I just kept saying to them, it stops, it stops. And I know now I'll never keep quiet again."
McCarthy's comments come as her "The Little Mermaid" co-star, Halle Bailey, praised her for encouraging her to stand up for herself in a professional work environment.
During an interview with CNN, Bailey said that "a lot of the time it can be scary and intimidating" to speak up for herself. But McCarthy helped her to overcome those feelings.
"She was telling me, 'Yeah, I had to learn. I wasn't always this way, and when you're young, you're timid,'" Bailey said, adding that McCarthy revealed that as she got older, she's learned how to "speak up and [say] what works for" her.
Bailey added that it was "really cool" to see McCarthy "come onto set and be just so comfortable with who she was in her skin and [to see] her standing up for herself."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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