Actors are calling for a crackdown on producers who use the casting calls to demand sex and strip shows from actors desperate for roles.
According to reports, actors are being pressured into having sex with casting agents and producers to get lead roles. The president of Equity, which reprents British actors, said the problem is getting “completely out of order”. Recently, high-profile actors including Helen Mirren and Gwyneth Paltrow revealed their horrific audition experiences.
Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren said that then-director Michael Winner treated her ‘like a piece of meat’. She said she was made to turn around so he could ogle her body during a casting session in 1964. ‘I was mortified and incredibly angry,’ she said in 2007. ‘I thought it was insulting and sexist, and I don’t think any actress should be treated like that – like a piece of meat – at all. ‘Even if they hadn’t done the kind of work that I’ve done, it was incredibly insulting.’
In 2010 Gwyneth Paltrow said early in her career a film executive suggested that a business meeting should finish ‘in the bedroom’. And Charlize Theron said that when she was 18, a Hollywood director wearing barely anything made a pass at her. ‘I thought it was a little odd that the audition was on a Saturday night at his house in Los Angeles, but I thought maybe that was normal.’
According to reports, aspiring actors are being harassed by sketchy producers. Equity, the UK’s actor’s union, will create audition guidelines to stop probing questions.
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