Tara Reid on being mistaken for Joe Biden accuser Tara Reade, pain of shooting new film when mother was terminally ill

If the first time you heard the name of the woman who recently accused former vice president and current presidential candidate Joe Biden of sexual assault, Tara Reade, and you immediately thought of the American Pie and Sharknado actress Tara Reid, you are not alone.

Reid has been bombarded with mentions on Twitter since the Reade story broke earlier this year.

"I had no idea what was going on," Reid, 44, tells Yahoo Entertainment while promoting her new crime drama 5th Borough (watch above). "I was like, 'Who's Tara Reade?' And then, 'Why would I have anything to do with the vice president. That wouldn't even make sense. And then I looked at her. First of all, she's like 60 years old. [Reade is 56.] I look nothing like her. Our name's aren't spelt the same.

"But on Twitter, I was reading all these crazy things. That's how I found out about it. 'Tara, how could you do this to him? They're so evil!' I'm like, 'Doing what? To who? To Joe Biden? How do you think I know Joe Biden?’ It doesn't make any sense."

Reid, who considers herself apolitical, says she was tagged "thousands" of times on the platform.

"But some were the opposite, too. Like, 'Don't worry, we support you, we love you.' They felt bad for me. Because it really confused everyone."

Tara Reid on the set of '5th Borough' (Stanulis Films)
Tara Reid on the set of 5th Borough. (Photo: Stanulis Films)

In 5th Borough, Reid plays a Staten Island internal affairs officer with the New York Police Department whose husband (Steve Stanulis, who also directs) gets entangled in mob activity while trying to make money to cover healthcare costs for their sick 17-year-old daughter.

Reid shot the film in October 2018 while her mother, Donna Reid, was terminally ill.

"As we were shooting it, mentally I was going through a really hard time in my life. So it helped with the character in that she was fighting for her family. She was fighting for her daughter not to die, to keep the family together. And I was using my energy about my mom to the daughter in the movie. So when you see a lot of those scenes, the pain that's there, it's really honest pain."

One of Reid's brothers called the actress when she had one day left in filming and told her they were close to losing their mother.

"We [wrapped], and then I jumped right on the plane, and landed, went right to the hospital and she died like three hours later. It was easy to build up those emotions like this. So this movie will always have a huge space in my heart forever because I'll always relate it to my mother."

5th Borough is now streaming on Vudu and video on demand services.

Watch the trailer:

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