Last month, actress Isabel Lucas filmed upcoming Aussie film Bosch & Rockit in Byron Bay alongside Luke Hemsworth and Rasmus King.
Given the global pandemic, movie and TV productions the world over have had to implement new procedures and guidelines to ensure a safe working environment - and Bosch & Rockit's set was no exception.
Bosch & Rockit had a 'COVID safety officer' and nurse on set daily, as well as temperature screening for all cast and crew when they arrived at work and required face masks to be worn.
Watch: How to talk to anti-vaxxers. Post continues below video.
Another of these guidelines was a mandatory test for COVID-19, the Brisbane Times reported.
However, Lucas told an American alternative health and wellbeing podcast she 'opted out' of receiving a test.
"I gave my duty of care of what I could offer to respect everyone's health and maintain my own health, and I shared that, and I opted out of doing the COVID test," she said.
"Everyone was really respectful and really honouring of, like, how to maintain health while this very tricky time is underway. But I needed to do that. I felt like it was quite an understanding, relaxed group of people."
In a statement, the producers of the film, which wrapped filming on September 21, said they were unaware she had not followed the film's COVID-Safe guidelines.
Listen to The Spill, Mamamia's daily entertainment podcast. In this episode, Kee Reece and Laura Brodnik discuss when Isabel Luca refused a COVID test. Post continues below.
"Every cast and crew member was required to sign an acknowledgement that they would adhere to the COVID-Safe guidelines adopted by the production, which included an acknowledgement that they had been COVID-tested prior to principal photography," Black Pearl Productions said in a statement shared with the Brisbane Times.
"Isabel's recent statement that she was not tested is inconsistent with the producers' understanding that she had complied with the COVID-Safe guidelines adopted by the production."
Lucas has said in the past she "doesn't trust" the path of vaccination, and has criticised the 5G network.
The actress, 35, made her acting debut as Tasha Andrews on Home and Away in 2003, and her first movie roll was in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in 2009.
Other big projects have included Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner, thriller film Careful What You Wish For alongside Nick Jonas and a regular role in MacGyver from 2017-2018.
But Lucas just as quickly became known for her activism as she did her career.
In 2007, she travelled to Japan and was part of a group of 30 from Surfers for Cetaceans, including actress Hayden Panettiere, who took part in a protest against dolphin hunting.
The group paddled out on surfboards in an attempt to stop fishing boats hunting dolphins, but were intercepted and forced to turn around. They drove straight to the airport and escaped Japan to avoid arrest - and there is still a warrant for her arrest in Japan.
She's served as a spokesperson for the Australian National Breast Cancer Foundation and supported many other organisations, including World Vision, Oxfam, Save the Whales and Sea Shepherd.
After a decade of basing herself in the United States, Lucas moved back to Australia in 2016 - specifically Byron Bay.
In March 2020, Lucas was announced as a new Ambassador for Girls' Rights for Plan International Australia but she was dropped from the charity less than a month later, after expressing her anti-vax and anti-5G views on social media.
In an April 2020 comment, she wrote: "I don't trust the path of vaccination". Around the same time, she regularly posted 5G radiation conspiracy theories to her 200,000 followers.
She compared the movement questioning the safety of 5G technology to the #MeToo movement for sexual harassment.
Her Instagram bio directs fans to a Google Doc to 'find out more about 5G'.
When questioned about this, Plan International Australia said it had come to an agreement with Lucas to end her ambassadorship.
Lucas then shared a statement clarifying her position: "I have concerns around 'mandatory' vaccination, not vaccination itself," she said.
"Moving forward, I'd like to welcome and invite cohesive, clear and calm communication around 'mandatory' vaccines, ethical vaccine testing and how to support every human being to have the right to freedom of choice. Thank you."
Months later in August, she was discovered going to great lengths to hide her identity during a Zoom call with COVID-19 conspiracy theorists, the Daily Mail reported.
She joined a call using the alias 'x' and covered her face with a black hoodie and mask as she told the others on the call she needed to be careful as she was an Australian actress.
"I'm here, and I don't want to be anonymous, but I am about to start filming a film, and I do need to be careful about being outspoken because you can get dropped from charities, you can lose campaigns with car companies," she said, referencing her past Plan International Australia ambassadorship.
"It has happened to me in recent times for speaking out. I feel careful, and I don't want to elicit any aggressive, threatening responses."
Lucas said she wanted to "shine a light on the reality of what's really going on", referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There's a certain level of agenda and darkness that has had authority... and that has had a lot of people believing lies," she said in the Zoom chat.
She also said she had left the US in 2016 after the election of Donald Trump, but she'd since changed her mind about him after watching a YouTube video about him being a 'lightworker', according to the Daily Mail.
Over the past few months, Lucas has continued to share content from well-known anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, including of lockdown protests around the world and vaccinations.
She has not yet commented on opting out of the COVID-19 tests on set of Bosch & Rockit.
Feature image: Getty.
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