"Your job is to get naked and to say the lines. That's it."
That was apparently Debra Messing's welcome to her first big-screen acting job.
Needless to say, her experience wasn't pleasant, alleging that the director of her first big-time role harassed her and demeaned her. And yes, she's naming names.
In 1995, the actress, known for her work on "Will & Grace," starred opposite Keanu Reeves in the romantic drama "A Walk in the Clouds." The film was directed by Alfonso Arau.
While speaking at the MAKERS Conference in California this week, Debra said the director suddenly tossed a nude scene into the film that was not part of the original script. As Debra, then 25, asked about the new scene, Alfonso allegedly told her, "Your job is to get naked and to say the lines. That's it."
Debra, who has no love lost for the director, claimed Alfonso said he needed to "set" the sheet covering her naked body before cameras rolled.
"He lifts it, scans my naked body, then drops the sheet on top of me like a used Kleenex. He walks away without a word," the actress said, according to TooFab. "The whole thing was a power play, a game. And the goal, to demean me, to strip me of my power and make me feel on a cellular level his dominance over me."
In the final cut of the film, only her back was shown.
In calling the director an "ass hat," the actress said he also criticized her face.
"How quickly can we get a plastic surgeon in here? Her nose is ruining my movie," Debra claimed the director said, adding that she was "frozen, horrified, mortified" at the time.
"I went into my trailer and cried," she revealed. "I felt ugly. I felt like garbage."
TooFab reached out to the director's manager, but didn't get a response.