The Rock Defends Former Co-Star Rebecca Ferguson After Verbal Abuse Claims

Dune: Part Two star Rebecca Ferguson opened up about abuse she experienced at the hands of an unnamed male co-star, prompting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to voice his support for the actor. Ferguson was appearing on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast when she told the story about the “idiot” actor who berated her in front of the entire cast and crew.

“I did a film with an absolute idiot of a co-star, and this human being was so insecure and angry because this person couldn’t get the scenes out,” she explained. “I was so vulnerable and uncomfortable that I got screamed at and I would cry walking off set.”

Ferguson continued: “This person would literally look at me in front of the whole crew and say, ‘You call yourself an actor? This is what I have to work with?’ I stood there just breaking,” she recalled. “Because this person was number one on the call sheet, there was no safety net for me. No one had my back.”

The first spot on the call sheet is reserved for the star of the film, but Ferguson was unmoved by the anonymous star’s stature. She arrived to work the next day and issued a stern ultimatum. “You get off my set. You can F off. I’m gonna work towards a tennis ball. I never want to see you again,” she recalled saying.

“And then I remember the producers came up and said, ‘You can’t do this to number one. We have to let this person be on set,'” Ferguson continued. “And I said, ‘The person can turn around and I can act to the back of the head.’ And I did. I was so scared. I feel it now when I’m saying it.”

The story caught the attention of Johnson, who starred opposite Ferguson in one of her first features, 2014’s Hercules. “Hate seeing this but love seeing her stand up to bulls--t,” Johnson wrote on X. “Rebecca was my guardian angel sent from heaven on our set. I love that woman. I’d like to find out who did this.”

Though Ferguson didn’t name which top star verbally abused her, the list of options is fairly thin. Ferguson has a slim filmography, most of it opposite notorious nice guys like Tom Cruise and Hugh Jackman. There are only three Ferguson films without those stars in which she wasn’t the top-billed actor: Life (2017), in which Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds starred; The Snowman (2017), starring Michael Fassbender; Doctor Sleep (2019), with Ewan McGregor; and Men In Black: International, with Chris Hemsworth and Liam Neeson.

Regardless of who yelled at Ferguson on set, they’re likely trembling in fear now that The Rock is on the case.