A famous Hollywood and TV actress has claimed that she was ‘yelled at for half an hour’ while working on the set of ‘one of the biggest shows on TV’.
Zosia Mamet, 37, is best known for her appearance as Shoshanna Shapiro on the 2010s American TV series Girls, which also starred its creator Lena Dunham.
Girls won numerous awards during its six seasons on the air and is regarded as one of the defining TV shows of its era, having been praised for its honest depiction of the lives young, ambitious women.
Before starring as Shoshanna in the HBO comedy drama series, Mamet entered the world of TV as a teenager, picking up recurring roles on shows such as The Unit, Parenthood, and the award-winning drama Mad Men.
In an excerpt from her new book, titled Does This Make Me Funny?, Mamet has alleged (via Hollywood Reporter) that, while working in one of these early roles around the age of 19, she quit on the spot after being ‘yelled at for half an hour’ by the showrunner.
While Mamet does not directly name the TV series or showrunner responsible, she claims the experience left her feeling like she ‘didn’t care if the [show’s] network sued me’.
After apparently having an impromptu and disastrous haircut just minutes before the cameras started rolling, Mamet says she initially had a wonderful experience on set while filming her first run of episodes.
Once she finished filming, she got a call to say the producers wanted her to appear in more episodes – but the dream soon turned to a nightmare when she was asked to open an envelope on set.
Mamet explains: ‘[During a scene] I was meant to come into the office, tell everyone I had photos of something important, remove them from the manila envelope I was carrying, and place them on the table.
‘I go to take the photos out of the envelope, and the showrunner calls “Cut.” Not the director of the episode, the showrunner… we all thought the scene was going fine.’
Mamet then goes on to explain that the unnamed showrunner walked towards her and asked her ‘What the f**k are you doing?’ before forcefully grabbing the hand in which she was holding the envelope.
‘He grabs my hand that’s holding the manila envelope and he says, “No! What the f**k are you doing with this?! That’s not how you take something out of an envelope! Do it again!”‘
Mamet then alleges that the scene was rehearsed several times, only for the showrunner to repeatedly yell ‘Cut’ before berating her and questioning how she could be ‘so bad at this’.
She claims that the rest of the cast said nothing while the showrunner continued shouting at her: ‘How the f**k can you think that looks right at all? That’s not how anyone would remove anything from an envelope ever!’
Mamet alleges: ‘[The incident] lasted for about a half hour. And nobody stopped it. Everyone just stared at their shoes while he screamed at me… I walked to my car, called my agents, and told them I quit.’
Years after leaving the show in question (which Mamet says she remains ‘proud’ of her work on) the actress bumped into the same showrunner at the Emmys – at which, she claims, he pretended not to know her.
That same night, the showrunner’s series ‘swept the awards’ and Mamet admits to ‘resenting him for that’, but that his lack of TV credits in more recent years has resulted in her ‘feeling sorry for him… for a moment’.
Fans have begun speculating over the identity of the showrunner, with Mamet having appeared in a handful of Emmy-winning series between 2007 (when she turned 19) and 2012 (when she landed her role on Girls).
Metro has contacted Zosia Mamet for comment.
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