In a popular viral video from last week, men appeared to aggressively try to take advantage of a "drunk" woman on Hollywood Boulevard. Although it was presented as a real "social experiment," the men in the video were paid actors who thought they were doing a comedy skit. And now the model who played the fake drunk girl says she was tricked the same way.

Jennifer Box posted a YouTube video to apologize for participating in the deceitful prank, and to clarify that all the guys in the video were "perfect gentlemen." She claims she was told it the shoot was for "a lighthearted prank show."

One of the men told Inside Edition Sunday that Box was the one who approached him and asked him to be in the video. "The actress came up to me and said 'I've seen you around before, seen you in a couple things. Would you mind acting out a role?'" he said.

The directors, Stephen Zhang, 20, and Seth Leach, 22, are viral marketers. Leach has deleted his Twitter and Facebook accounts since the hoax was exposed. Zhang's channel, where the video was posted, has been wiped clean and renamed "video productions," and the original video is now private. It had been viewed 11.5 million times.

Leach initially tried to do damage control after the men in the video complained. "We are going to be huge and you are a part of it. Just go with it dude, you are in our team now and we will take care of you," he told one of them, according to The Smoking Gun.

[h/t Reddit]