Rachel Bilson is letting the world in on the time Rami Malek asked her to delete an Instagram photo of the two she shared in the middle of his 2019 Oscar run.
“The O.C.” alum joined Dax Shepard and Monica Padman’s “Armchair Expert” podcast Monday and shared the reason why the Oscar-winning “Bohemian Rhapsody” star wasn’t too happy about the throwback photo in question.
In February 2019, Bilson shared an old picture of the two when they were younger, which she captioned, “Hey @ramimalek where’d you get that gold chain? #tbt #oscarworthy.”
But it didn’t stay up on her Instagram for too long.
“Rami was a good friend of mine,” Bilson said during the podcast, noting the two attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. “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.”
The “Hart of Dixie” actress continued to gush about Malek’s talent and said, “I had posted a throwback of us from our senior trip to New York/Broadway, we’re super like nerdy … it’s the dorkiest picture of both of us, but I (posted it) because it’s funny and I think it’s so important to be able to make fun of yourself.”
Bilson said she doesn’t usually check her direct messages on Instagram, but after about a week of having the photo up of Malek, she saw he messaged her.
“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 very private person,” the actress said. “I get really hot, I start sweating and I’m like all nervous.”
She added that she originally posted the photo of the two ahead of the 2019 Oscars to celebrate his “Bohemian Rhapsody” success. That year, he won the best actor Academy Award for the 2018 musical drama.
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Ultimately, Bilson removed the photo from her Instagram feed and said she wrote the “Mr. Robot” actor a “really nice message” apologizing and wishing him the best, but he never responded.
“I was super bummed because he always so nice and we were good friends,” Bilson shared. “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.”
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