Tara Reid has claimed being "misjudged" as a "party girl" damaged her career.
Tara Reid
The 'American Pie' actress went through a "frustrating" time in the early 2000s when she struggled to find work, which she believes is because people had a misconception that she was wild, even though she never did "anything bad" and she still feels like she was "punished" just for having fun.
She said: "I didn’t work for a while. That was really frustrating.
"[It bothered me] that [people thought] I was just a party girl and thought I wasn’t anything else because that wasn’t true…It didn’t make sense to get punished for having fun.
"I never got in trouble or got a DUI or do anything bad really. So I feel like it wasn’t right. I felt really bullied by the studios and a lot of people and very misjudged."
The 45-year-old star decided to make the move into producing in order to "fix" her reputation.
She said: "That’s also one of the reasons why I started to do this because I’m like, 'If I don’t fix this, it’s not going to get fixed.
"So that’s when I said, 'OK, we’re going to turn this around, people are going to realize how smart I am, how I’m producing, how I’m creating all these things and then they’re going to have to stop because they can’t keep picking on you. It was almost cool to pick on me and it’s not...
"I'm not gonna wait for a script because I'm not gonna do that anymore. So I was like, 'I'm gonna create my own parts and I'm gonna produce them. This is a really exciting time for me."
And though acting is still Tara's "favourite thing to do", she's loving her new role behind the scenes.
She told 'Entertainment Tonight': "Becoming a producer has been so exciting and so different than acting.
"I didn't realise how much goes into a film. Just getting it financed and getting the actors and getting the studio and getting the script and getting the writers and getting the director. I mean it's so much...I'm so proud of it.
"I wanna be a really good businesswoman. Not just acting and producing, but making some brands, getting into the fashion world, just having my hands in a little bit of everything."
Tagged in Tara Reid