Rebecca Ferguson has opened up about why she chose not to publicly name the co-star she once described as an “absolute idiot” after a painful on-set confrontation, saying the experience was more about her own growth than exposing anyone else.
The Golden Globes nominee returned to the incident two years after first speaking about it during a February 2024 appearance on the show Reigns with Josh Smith podcast.
In a new interview with Harper’s BazaarFerguson made it clear that his decision to keep the person’s identity private was intentional.
“It wasn’t about the person. It was about me,” she said, reflecting on how unprepared she felt at that moment to defend herself in a calm, direct manner.
She admitted that the situation felt overwhelming, adding that she didn’t know how to ask for a private conversation at the time, something she thinks she could handle differently now.
Ferguson also touched on broader discussions about workplace behavior, pushing back against criticism over changing industry standards.
“A lot of people say we’ve become too woke, but I think no, that’s great. The pendulum needs to swing the other way so we can find a balance between the two,” she said, suggesting open discussions about power and respect are long overdue.
The original incident, which took place years earlier, involved a co-star who yelled at her during filming, leaving her so upset that she walked away in tears.
At the time, Ferguson remembered the actor shouting, “‘Your name is an actor? Is that what I have to work with?’
She later revealed that she asked the individual to leave the set and instructed him to act in front of a tennis ball instead, explaining that the person’s superior status made the situation particularly isolating.
“Because this person was number one on the call list, there was no safety net for me,” she said in 2024. “No one had my back. »
Since she first shared the story, online speculation has swirled around the identity of the anonymous actor.
Ferguson firmly ruled out some of the most popular guesses, confirming that it wasn’t Hugh Jackman or Tom Cruise.
Dwayne Johnson also appeared to distance himself from these claims after publicly showing his support for her.
Despite the curiosity surrounding the incident, Ferguson remains focused on why she spoke out in the first place, not to shame anyone else, but to highlight an experience that many artists quietly endure and to show how far she’s come since that moment.
