Casey Wilson Opens Up About Difficult On-Set Experience With Tim Allen
Casey Wilson, who appeared alongside Tim Allen in The Santa Clauses on Disney+, called her time working with him the worst of her career, citing his cold and dismissive attitude during filming.
Tim Allen’s reputation among his colleagues has long been a topic of conversation in Hollywood. While he’s widely recognized for his roles in the 1990s sitcom Home Improvement and as the voice of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story, Allen’s off-screen relationships have often been less than warm. For many, he’s also the face of the holiday film The Santa Clause, but stories from those who’ve worked with him paint a different picture.
Allen’s professional history is marked by several controversies. In the late 1990s, Home Improvement came to an abrupt end after Patricia Richardson, who played his on-screen wife, protested the significant pay disparity between them. Allen was earning $2 million per episode, while Richardson was offered only half that amount. Rather than advocating for equal pay, Allen allowed Richardson to leave, which led to the show’s cancellation. There were also claims from Pamela Anderson, who appeared on the sitcom, that Allen exposed himself to her on set, joking that since he had seen her nude in Playboy, it was only fair she saw him as well.
Casey Wilson’s Uncomfortable Encounter
These incidents, however, are overshadowed by more recent comments from Casey Wilson, who had a small part in the Disney+ series The Santa Clauses. Wilson, known for her work on Saturday Night Live and Happy Endings, described her brief time on set with Allen as deeply unpleasant. On her podcast Bitch Sesh (as reported by Variety), Wilson recalled a scene where she was supposed to throw objects at Allen as he came out of a fireplace. During filming, Allen approached a producer—standing just a few feet away—and, in a voice loud enough for Wilson to hear, told the producer to ask her to stop stepping on his lines. The producer, clearly uncomfortable, relayed the message to Wilson.
Wilson said Allen avoided any direct interaction with her and wouldn’t make eye contact throughout the shoot. She described the atmosphere as tense, with everyone on set feeling uneasy in his presence. At one point, a crew member remarked, “You’re seeing him on a good day.”
“Tim Allen was such a bitch,”
Wilson said.
“It was truly the single worst experience I’ve ever had with a co-star, ever.”
Hollywood’s Unspoken Rules
It’s rare for actors to publicly criticize their peers, making Wilson’s candid remarks all the more striking. Despite the tension, Allen continued with The Santa Clauses until its cancellation in 2023. He later moved on to star in a new sitcom, Shifting Gears, where he plays a widower with a sharp edge—perhaps a role that keeps him away from the kind of on-screen partnerships that have led to past conflicts.