Rachel Bilson says she and Rami Malek are 'all good' after throwback picture drama: 'We talked about it'
Rami Malek reached out to Rachel Bilson to clear the air after that throwback picture story made headlines. Last month, the former O.C. star revealed Malek asked her to delete a photo of them from high school she posted on Instagram.
"We can talk about it because Rami and I actually have talked since that came out. He connected with me, and we're all good. He was so sweet and we're totally fine now and we talked about it and we're good," the 39-year-old actress shared on Tuesday's LadyGang podcast. Bilson called Malek "so gracious."
"And I totally understood where he was coming from and he understood me. And I was just so happy we were able to squash it and move on," she said.
Bilson said she was "so mortified" her casual story about Malek made headlines, revealing she had "a panic attack."
"I had to go to therapy that day, and I was like, 'I am having anxiety. I did not want this to resurface in this way. I feel so bad... Rami is going to think I'm doing this again,'" she recalled. "But it actually turned out to be a good thing... we were able to reconnect and make it better. Everything's great."
Bilson first told the story on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast. While Malek was in the middle of awards season — before ultimately winning the Oscar for Best Actor — Bilson shared a throwback photo of the two of them as they were in the "same crew" in high school.
“I had posted a throwback of us from our senior trip to New York. 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 recalled at the time.
Malek didn't find it as humorous and sent her a direct message asking her to take the photo down.
"I don't usually check my DMs on my Instagram…maybe a week goes by and I actually look and I have a message from Rami. But 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.'…I was like, 'Oh, s***! Okay,'" she told Shepard. "I get really hot and start sweating. I'm all nervous, like, 'Oh god! What did I do?' He was a really good friend, it's a funny picture…you know? I don't take myself that seriously."
Bilson said she "was just a little bummed at how it was handled."
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