Andie MacDowell says she suffered a panic attack after noticing she was the only woman on film set

• Andie MacDowell said she had a panic attack on a film set in 2016.
• MacDowell said she was "freaked out" when she realized she was the only woman on the set.

Andie MacDowell said that she once suffered a panic attack while filming a project in 2016 after noticing that she was the only woman involved in the production.

MacDowell told Marie Claire that the incident happened on a film set shortly after the election of Donald Trump as US president. The impact of the election, she said, started to weigh heavily on her mind.

"I was really disturbed that nobody seemed to care about the vagina[-grabbing] comment; I had gotten really sad," she said.

The 64-year-old actor continued to say that she has worked with many "difficult men" throughout her career and has previously been able to disregard poor behavior on set. During this one incident, however, she said she was particularly "freaked out" to discover she was the only woman involved in the production.

"I went to do a job, a day's work, and I had my very first panic attack. I was getting ready to shoot something, and I turn around and it's, like, a roomful of men. Like, a sea of men. It flashed on something that was personal for me. And I dropped to my knees," MacDowell explained.

MacDowell added that she left the room and rushed to the bathroom where she gave herself a pep talk.

"It just freaked me out, not seeing any other women. It's not that I have anything against men, I don't!" she said. "I just don't like big groups of them. Since then, I've become very conscious of looking around and finding the women on set. For comfort."

MacDowell added that there has been a visible difference in the way films are produced since the start of the #MeToo movement.

"MeToo has been interesting — you do see the difference on set. There are a lot more women," she said.

Elsewhere in the interview, MacDowell discussed her decision to embrace her gray hair. The actress debuted her silver locks in public for the first time on the red carpet at the 2021 Cannes film festival.

"I had been wanting to do it, so COVID did me a favor. I'm not anti-color; you have to do what makes you happy," the "Maid" star said. "I just think this is also a lovely option. I now say I have salt-and-pepper hair, and someone just said to me that's only been used for men, that expression. I was never conscious [women] can't say we have salt-and-pepper hair!"