Rachel Bilson Was ‘Bummed’ When Former Friend Rami Malek DMed Asking Her to Delete a Throwback Pic of Them Together
Note to self: get friend's consent before posting potentially unflattering photo of them to social media.
On Monday (March 29), Rachel Bilson joined Dax Shepard and Monica Padman’s Armchair Expert podcast, where she revealed that Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek once made her delete an Instagram post.
"Rami was a good friend of mine," Bilson said, noting that they attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California together. "We were in the same crew. We did the 'Crucible' together senior year, we were the leads in it together. 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," she recalled. "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."
A week later, The O.C. star checked her Instagram DMs and found a message 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 s--t, okay.' I get like really hot, I like start sweating, and I get all nervous."
The actress honored his wishes and took the photo down.
"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," she shared. "But 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."
She added that she had originally posted the photo of the two ahead of the 2019 Oscars to celebrate his Bohemian Rhapsody success. Malek ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 2018 musical drama.