Actress Bijou Phillips has apologized to “Mean Girls” star Daniel Franzese, who accused Phillips of body-shaming and physically assaulting him on the set of the 2001 indie movie “Bully.”
“I want to write to address what Daniel has said,” the actress told TMZ. “I don’t remember that time well, those years are a blur. I was a teenager and reckless in my behavior. I know Daniel to be a trustworthy and honest person, and to find out through social media that I was not the friend I thought I was to him made me so sad.”
She added, “I am so mortified by this behavior and have contacted Daniel and apologized to him privately. I am not and never have been homophobic. I have nothing but love for the LGBTQ community and Daniel.”
On Saturday, Franzese took to Facebook to share his experience with on-set homophobia and abusive behavior in light of Ellen Page coming forward to tell her experience with Brett Ratner on the set of the “X-Men” movies.
“On my first film BULLY I was harassed by Bijou Phillips the entire shoot,” he wrote. “She body shamed me and ridiculed me about my sexuality and physically assaulted me.”
Franzese said that the actress would loudly say, “Are you gay?” although he was still closeted at the time. The actor added that when he told her he was bi, she would say, “Oh look! The Bi guy is here!”
“Later on in the production I had a scene where my character had to take his shirt off,” he added. “It was an extremely vulnerable moment for me because I was not at all the type of guy comfortable with taking my clothes off in front of anyone at that point in my life. I was the chubby kid who wore his shirt in the pool. So I take my shirt off in the scene and she breaks character and she pointed at my body and at the top of her lungs yelled ‘Ewwww gross!!!’ She laughed and pointed at me and continued to berate me. they call cut and I had to walk off set to collect myself.”
On another occasion, Franzese said Phillips “grabbed my nipple and twisted it hard through my shirt and laughed and walked away.” She also once wiped her dirty feet on Franzese’s neck, he wrote.
“It was such a blessing to get a foot into Hollywood’s door but I was greeted at that door with homophobia, body shaming and abuse,” he concluded. “The way I was treated in that hostile work environment gave me a PTSD that had me stay closeted for a long time.”
A spokesperson for Franzese has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment, although he tweeted that he forgave Phillips and accepted her apology.
“We’ve all been hurt and we’ve all hurt someone,” he wrote to Phillips. “I accept your apology on the grace you can afford the same mercy to someone else one day.