Rachel Bilson shared the story of the time she posted a throwback photo with old friend and movie star Rami Malek. When he caught wind of the photo, he was less than amused, and DM'ed her asking her to delete it right after.

According to Bilson, the two were pals back in high school, having both attended Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, CA.

While on Dax Shepard and Monica Padman's Armchair Expert podcast on Monday, March 29, Bilson called Malek a "good friend," and mentioned that they even acted in the same play. "We were [in] the same crew. We did the Crucible together senior year, we were the leads in it together—all these things. We kind of kept in contact a little bit."

in February 2019, Rachel had enough confidence in her relationship with the actor and took to Instagram to share an adorable throwback of the two in NYC as teens. Her caption read, "Hey @ramimalek where'd you get that gold chain? #tbt #oscarworthy #dontforgetthelittlepeople." The hashtags nodded at Malek's acquired awards for Bohemian Rhapsody, as he was skyrocketing into fame at the time Bilson posted the photo. At the time, Rami had taken names at the Oscars, SAG Awards, and Golden Globes for his role as Freddie Mercury in the film.

Rachel and Rami back in the day

Rachel and Rami

Instagram

Bilson then explains how the awkward Insta moment went down: "Obviously, he gets super famous and he's always been extremely talented...even in high school," she shared. "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."

She mentioned that when she receives a direct message on Instagram, she usually doesn't check it for a while, so she noticed a DM from Malek after a week. She reveals, "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.'"

She divulged that the message made her super flustered, recalling that it literally made her sweat! "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 also mentioned that Malek wasn't the only one who didn't approve of the image. She spoke to a friend of hers - also Malek's stylist - about the image, who agreed that it wasn't the most flattering picture of him.

"I was like, I guess I should've found something more flattering," she revealed. "But I removed it and I even wrote to him a really nice message: 'I'm so sorry. Go get the Oscar! You're doing amazing.' And I never hear anything back, which is fine. But I was super bummed because he was always so nice and we were good friends."

With all that said, Bilson still has nothing but support for Malek and respects his wishes to be private. "He wants to be super-respected, it's his thing, so I respected it."