Rachel Bilson said she was “super bummed” when former classmate Rami Malek asked her to take down an old photo of them from her Instagram.
According to Yahoo! News, back in February 2019 Bilson shared a photo of herself with Malek as teenagers on a trip to New York. They both attended Notre Dame High School in in Sherman Oaks, California (the same school that Kristen Dunst attended).
39-year-old Bilson said she was amused by the “dorky” picture she posted just ahead of Malek’s Oscar win for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, but he was not comfortable with it. The photo is no longer available to view, but is described as Malek pointing to the camera wearing a black sweater, white T-shirt and gold chain while being hugged by a curly-haired and grinning Bilson. Captioned,”Hey @ramimalek where’d you get that gold chain? #tbt #oscarworthy #dontforgetthelittlepeople.” A week after she posted the photo, she received a direct message from Malek. She recounts, “It wasn’t like, ‘Hey! How are you?’ It was straight to: ‘I would really appreciate if you take that down. I’m a really private person.’”
The O.C. star said, “I had posted a throwback of us from our senior trip to New York, Broadway. We’re super nerdy… just the dorkiest picture of the both of us. But I throw it up, ’cause it’s funny and I think it’s so important to be able to make fun of yourself.” Bilson added that Malek’s stylist, who is also friends with her said “it’s not a great picture of him.”
Feeling badly about upsetting Malek, Bilson realized she should’ve found something more flattering and wrote back to him an apology message saying, “‘I’m so sorry. Go get the Oscar! You’re doing amazing.’ And I never hear anything back, which is fine. But I was super bummed because he was always so nice and we were good friends.”