It is her role on the latter that has now proven controversial over 20 years later. Speaking on an episode of the YouTube show Hot Ones, she has revealed that she was not made to feel welcome when she played pregnant teen Leanne in two episodes of the show.
The Little Fockers actress said: “On the set of 90210, I couldn’t even make eye contact with any of the cast members, which was really strange when you’re, like, trying to do a scene with them. It was like, ‘You’re not allowed to make eye contact with anyone of the cast members or you’ll be thrown off the set.’”
So far, none of the people she shared the screen with in 90210 have publicly commented on her revelation.
Guests being told not to make eye contact with stars is a story we have often heard about sets in Hollywood exposes. Singer Calum Scott, for example, said of appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to the Daily Star in 2016: “I was backstage, and the stage manager was walking with me as I was just about to go on the show. I told him, ‘I can’t believe I’m getting to do this,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s so amazing, but remember not to look Ellen in the eye—everything else is fine, but just don’t look her in the eye.” (Ellen has said of this no eye contact rule per Page Six: “I don’t know where it started. Please talk to me. Look me in the eye.”)
Alba’s Hot Ones confession is not the first time she had spoken about being mistreated in Hollywood. In an August 2019 issue of Cosmopolitan, for example, she said: “I was demeaned so much. The way women were treated in many circumstances, I was just over it. I’d do a lot of press; the guys did nothing compared to what I was doing. I was like, ‘I’m done doing it this way.”’
Asked in the wake of the #MeToo movement whether she had been harassed during her career, the actor and businessperson said: “Just know that I’ve been through it and I guess I learned how to have a really thick skin.”
