Rami Malek was Too Private for Rachel Bilson's Throwback Pic
Rachel Bilson recalls being "a little bummed" when her high school friend Rami Malek asked her to take down a throwback photo she posted. https://t.co/fSvJ8gwsrp
- Entertainment Weekly (@EW) March 30, 2021
While on Dax Shepard's damn podcast, Rachel Bilson talked about an awkward interaction with her high school friend, future Oscar winner Rami Malek.
"Rami was a good friend of mine," Bilson said. "We were the same crew. We did The Crucible together senior year. We were the leads in it together, all these things. We kind of kept in contact a little bit."
"I had posted a throwback of us from our senior trip to New York, Broadway. We were super-nerdy, just the dorkiest picture of both of us. But I throw it up 'cause it's funny, and I think it's so important to be able to make fun of yourself, and he had like a gold chain, and I'm like, 'Rami where'd you get the gold chain?' Whatever. So I'm just being funny, we were good friends."
She was told by Rami's stylist that he didn't appreciate the gesture, and Rachel was taken aback when even the creator of the O.C. criticized her: "It was right before the Oscars, and I remember [The O.C. creator] Josh Schwartz being like, 'You did him dirty! He's about to be nominated.' And I'm like, 'What do you mean? This was my friend; it's a funny picture.'"
After she took down the pic, she sent Rami an apology: "I wrote to him a really nice message, like, 'I'm so sorry. Go get the Oscar, you're doing amazing.' And I never hear anything back. I was super-bummed because he was always so nice and we were good friends, and I'm a big fan of not taking yourself seriously, especially at that level of fame and talent. But look, he wants to be super-respected, it's his thing, so I respected it. I took it down. I was just a little bummed at how it was handled."
A week later, Bilson checked her Instagram DMs and was surprised to find a message there from Malek. "But it wasn't like, 'Hey! How are you?' It was straight to 'I would really appreciate it if you take that down, I'm a really private person,'" she said. "I was like, 'Oh shit, okay."
The pic in question:
👀 pic.twitter.com/z1GwDfsEk4
- Felippe (@House0fDragon) March 30, 2021
Source, two