Jenna Fischer may be a certified actress now but back when she was still a newbie to the industry, a playwright had refused to call her a "real actress."
"The Office" star is still fuming over Shem Bitterman's condescending comments to her at a party years ago over her refusal to do explicit sex scenes.
She narrates to Playboy magazine, "I had been living in Los Angeles for about a year and was a member of a theater company. One night, after a play, I went to a party and ran into the playwright [Bitterman]."
"He said, 'I'm writing a film, and I think you'd be great for it. But I have a question for you - would you ever do a raunchy sex scene in a movie? Like really raunchy, with nudity?' I kind of laugh and said, 'Well, I wouldn't do anything I wouldn't be proud to show my parents.'"
"And he said, 'Well, you're not a real actress, then.' I was stunned. He said, 'A real actress would say yes. A real actress would p**s herself onstage if that's what it took. Sylvester Stallone did porn. Shelley Winters p**sed herself onstage. Every play, every movie I write has nudity in it. You know why? Because that's how I know if I'm working with real actors. You're not a real actress. You should just go home. You don't have what it takes.'"
"I went home and cried and cried and cried."
The 34-year-old TV actress still thinks of the episode with resentment. She adds, "What an a**hole. I should have told him, 'How about I p**s on your face? Does that make me a real actress? Let's try that. I'll do it right here. I'll do that today. Bring me Shem Bitterman."
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