Minnie Driver’s experience filming Hard Rain fell short in comparison to her earlier work. Despite the 1998 film’s A-list cast, the dynamic trio of Driver, Morgan Freeman, and Christian Slater wasn’t enough to boost box office sales. But the lackluster response from critics and fans wasn’t Driver’s only negative takeaway from the action-thriller.
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On the I Weigh podcast hosted by Jameela Jamil, the actor candidly opened up about an alleged wardrobe incident that occurred during the making of Hard Rain. Because the movie is set during a massive storm with torrential flooding, production brought in “huge rain machines,” she explained for context. At one point, Driver said they were filming in “20 gallons of water.”
“We shot crazy hours. It was tough,” she said on the podcast episode, which dropped on April 2. However, while Driver’s co-stars were given wetsuits to wear under their costumes, Driver claimed producers denied her the option. And while she didn’t call out the producers by name, she said their intentions were explicitly clear.
"Everybody else could wear a wetsuit underneath their costume, and I was told by the producers that I couldn't because they wanted to see my nipples, and that there was no point in having the wet T-shirt if you couldn't have what was underneath it,” Driver said on the podcast.
Without specifying who exactly was involved, Driver added, “It was very kind of plainly told, like, 'You are an idiot if you don't understand that this is what's going on.' And I remember saying, ‘This is wrong.’”
Driver immediately got her agent involved but claimed she was “punished” for speaking up. "It was leaked to the press that I called and complained about conditions, but it was as if there was nothing to complain about and I was just complaining,” she said.
Celebrity costume designer Kathleen Detoro, who worked on Hard Rain, denied Driver’s claims in an email to Entertainment Weekly. “The producers had me supply everyone including crew with wetsuits,” she said. Furthermore, the film’s leads, which included Driver, were approved to wear wetsuit “tops, bottoms, booties,” according to Detoro.
On the subject of Driver’s allegation, Detoro said that "the actors decide if they want to wear it or not." Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Freeman told EW that the 86-year-old actor “has no recollection” of Driver’s experience on set.
Best Life reached out to Driver's representative about the alleged on-set incident and Detoro’s comments and will update this story with their response.
