Jessica Alba Isn’t the Only Star With a Negative Experience on the Set of ‘Beverly Hills 90210’
In the wake of Jessica Alba’s claims from the set of Beverly Hills 90210, other stars from the TV show are speaking out. Ian Ziering and Jason Priestly recall the experience from their perspective. But, Alba isn’t the only one who didn’t have the best time on the set.
Recent claims suggest Jessica Alba wasn’t allowed to make eye contact on the set of ‘Beverly Hills 90210’
During an Oct. interview during First We Feast’s Hot Ones challenge, Alba claimed that while filming her 1998 appearance on Beverly Hills 90210, she wasn’t allowed to make eye contact with the other stars.
“On the set of 90210, I couldn’t even make eye contact with any of the cast members, which was really strange when you’re, like, trying to do a scene with them,” Alba said. “It was like, ‘You’re not allowed to make eye contact with any one of the cast members or you’ll be thrown off the set.’”
Following the revelation, 90210 alum Jennie Garth and Tori Spelling refuted the claims. Now, fellow former castmate, Ziering is chiming in.
“I can’t for the life of me ever imagine a situation where any of the actors would ever say that,” Ziering said via Access Hollywood. “None of my castmates ever requested anything like that,”
“I’m not doubting that was her experience,” he added. “It saddens me because it lessened the experience for her — certainly didn’t slow her down in life—but it’s hard to hear that there was any negativity on the set.”
He continued, “If I had known about that I would have shot that down immediately… I didn’t even work with her that day but I would’ve went right over to her and said, ‘How are you doing?'”
Priestly added his thoughts via E! News saying he isn’t the one who made the “no eye-contact rule.”
“I always went out of my way to make sure that our guests always felt incredibly welcomed and I would always go and talk to them and make sure they knew this was a place where we wanted them to succeed,” he said.
Dean Cain’s character became a ‘dork’ per one cast member’s insistence on omitting a storyline
In 1992, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman actor Dean Cain guest-starred on the show as Rick, the boy Brenda met in Paris. Cain told The Today Show in 2017 what went down with his storyline — and it wasn’t great.
“Here’s the weird thing about the show. I was supposed to break up with [Brenda] when I found out that she was sort of a fraud and she was lying to me,” he said.
“But Shannen didn’t want that to happen. She didn’t want a guest star to come on and break up with her, and so instead they turned me into a dork. You’re an actor, you’re just a gun for hire. You can’t go, ‘Oh, I don’t want to say that.’ You say what you’re told to say, you sing when you’re told to sing. Some of his lines were…oof. You just get the cheesy lines but you gotta say ’em.”
No worries. Cain went on to make a good career and no one seems to recall him as a “dork.”
Hilary Swank got fired from her role
Swank might be an award-winner now, but int the ’90s, she was just another actor looking for a gig. Swank became a series regular in season 8 as Carly Reynolds but her time was shortened.
“They were like, ‘Look, it’s not working.’ And I couldn’t move. I was like, ‘What’s not working? Me? Am I bad? I’m not working because I’m bad?’” she said during a 2014 interview on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.
“I was on 90210 during the eighth season when no one watched anymore and Luke Perry was long gone,”she said adding she was “devastated” after being written out.
At least her role was a named character unlike that of Eva Longoria who was cast as “flight attendant No. 3.”
“I wasn’t even No. 1 or 2, I was flight attendant No. 3,” she told YahooTV in 2016, which goes to show in Hollywood, it can always be worse.
