4 Minutes
One quiet comment can stay with an actor for years. Lili Reinhart just proved that with a memory from an earlier set experience, recalling the moment a male director leaned in and told her to “suck in your stomach a little bit.” It was brief, invasive, and all too familiar in an industry that still wrestles with body image, control, and who gets to shape how women appear on screen.
Reinhart shared the story while promoting Forbidden Fruits, speaking in a Cosmopolitan video alongside co-stars Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, and Lola Tung. Asked to name an acting note she took personally, she didn’t hesitate. Her answer cut through the usual press-tour polish and landed with the kind of honesty audiences tend to remember.
The timing matters. Reinhart is currently fronting Forbidden Fruits, a female-led film directed by Meredith Alloway, and the contrast between that experience and the one she described could hardly be sharper. In the movie, Reinhart plays Apple, the magnetic leader of a witchy femme cult operating out of the luxury mall store Free Eden. Alongside Cherry, played by Pedretti, and Fig, played by Shipp, Apple brings Pumpkin, played by Tung, into the fold—only for the group to realize something dangerous has slipped into their carefully built world.
It is a bold setup, but what makes the story around the film especially compelling is Reinhart’s account of how different this production felt behind the scenes. During an appearance at Deadline’s SXSW Studio, she spoke about the freedom and trust that came with working on a female-centric set. Not performative empowerment. Real collaboration.
She described it as the kind of creative environment actors rarely get to enjoy consistently, one where choices are discussed rather than imposed. That difference showed up even in the costume design. Apple wears black, fitted clothing, but Reinhart made it clear the styling was never about packaging the character for the male gaze. Quite the opposite. The look, as she framed it, projects distance, power, and self-possession. Not “look at me.” More like “don’t come near me.” That distinction says everything.
And maybe that is why Reinhart’s old story hit so hard. It was not just about one rude note from one male director. It pointed to a much bigger divide in film and television: the difference between being shaped for someone else’s approval and being allowed to build a character from the inside out.
For viewers following Lili Reinhart’s career after Riverdale, Forbidden Fruits now carries another layer of intrigue. Yes, it is a dark, stylish story with cult energy and sharp genre appeal. But it also arrives as part of a larger conversation about what changes when women lead the room, both in front of the camera and behind it.
Hollywood has heard these stories before. The reason this one lingers is simple: Reinhart did not dress it up. She named the discomfort, then placed it beside a healthier creative experience. That contrast tells its own story—and it is probably the one more productions should be paying attention to.
Source: deadline
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