Rachel Bilson has opened up about a surprising career setback that still stings. The Hart of Dixie star says she actually lost a job due to a sexual joke she made on a podcast.
On the Why Won’t You Date Me? podcast, Bilson explained that things worsened after she made a casual joke about her sex life. “We were joking around, basically like girlfriends talking,” she said. “But when you take it out of context, it sounds totally different.”
In 2023, Bilson openly chatted on the Women on Top podcast, where she joked about her bedroom preferences and even said, “I want to be manhandled.” Many listeners related to her honesty. Even her co-host’s 83-year-old mom agreed to her and said that she felt the same.
But the company Bilson was working with at the time didn’t find it funny. Because of their conservative outlook, they decided to drop her.
The actress admitted the experience hit her hard. “This was the first time something like that ever happened to me,” she shared. “I cried. I’m a single mom and I need these jobs. Everything matters.” Bilson said it was tough to lose a role over something she considered harmless.
Since then, she admits she’s become a little more cautious about what she says. “I definitely felt myself filtering after that,” she said. But despite the setback, Bilson hasn’t stopped being open. On her own podcast Broad Ideas, she continues to share stories about parenting, relationships, and even celebrity encounters.
Looking back, Bilson says she still doesn’t regret being herself. “At the end of the day, we were just joking around.”
