Lili Reinhart reveals male director told her to 'suck in your stomach'
Lili Reinhart reveals male director told her to 'suck in your stomach'
Brendan Morrow, USA TODAYThu, April 2, 2026 at 3:49 PM UTC
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Lili Reinhart is calling out the offensive note she once received from a male director.
The "Riverdale" star, 29, revealed in a video with Cosmopolitan that she once "had a male director come up to me and silently lean over and go, 'Just suck in your stomach a little bit.'"
She made the revelation after being asked to name an acting note that she took personally, in a video interview alongside her "Forbidden Fruits" costars Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti and Alexandra Shipp. All three stars reacted with disgust to the story from Reinhart, who promised she would privately tell them the director's name off camera.
"Time for a hex! Time for a hex!" Tung declared, referencing the plot of the horror comedy "Forbidden Fruits," which follows a coven of witches who put hexes on their enemies.
Lili Reinhart attends the SCAD TVfest on Feb. 4, 2026, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Reinhart, best known for her role of Betty Cooper on the CW series "Riverdale," plays the leader of a witchy cult in "Forbidden Fruits," marking a rare instance of the actress in a more villainous role. Emma Chamberlain and Gabrielle Union also appear in the movie.
In the past, Reinhart has opened up about struggling with an eating disorder while on "Riverdale."
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"I really don't like looking at Season 6 imagery or pictures, because I know that 99% of my thoughts were about my body," she told Self in 2025. "I was a thousand percent just disassociated through that entire day or scene because my entire inner dialogue is just… 'Your body's changing.'"
Lili Reinhart attends the GLAAD Media Awards at The Beverly Hilton on March 5, 2026, in Beverly Hills, California.
In a candid X post in 2023, the "Hustlers" star also shared that her "body dysmorphia has been going crazy because I feel like my arms need to be half the size they are currently," adding, "We've glamorized these skinny arms that, for most of us, can only be achieved if you're a literal adolescent."
In a follow-up X post, Reinhart wondered "how anyone survives or gets through this life without having severe" body dysmorphia.
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During a recent conversation with USA TODAY, Reinhart noted that she is happy to have worked with "a lot" of female filmmakers in her career, including Meredith Alloway, the director of "Forbidden Fruits."
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"I'm proud and happy to be championing women in this space, in a space where jobs are usually given to men," she said. "They're just kind of the default."
Reinhart also told USA TODAY she was lucky to form a close friendship with Alloway, which isn't always the case with projects she has worked on. "I've definitely done movies where I've not felt comfortable with whoever I'm working with," she said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lili Reinhart reveals offensive note from male director
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
