Agents Demand Sex/Strip Shows From Actors for Parts
 

Actors Call for Crackdown on Producers Who Use the Casting Couch
- to Demand Sex and Strip Shows from Actors Desperate for Roles

• Aspiring actors are being harassed by dodgy casting agents, say Equity
• Actors' union will draw up audition guidelines to stop probing questions
• Inappropriate behaviour by movie executives revealed by celebrities
• Helen Mirren said she felt 'like a piece of meat' after one casting call
  

Daily Mail UK, 31 May 2015


Actors are being increasingly pressured into having sex with sleazy casting agents to get sought-after parts, a union has warned.


The president of Equity, which represents British performers, said the problem of the 'casting couuch' where actors are pressured into giving sexual favours in return for roles is getting worse and is 'completely out of order'.

It follows the revelations by high-profile celebrities including Helen Mirren and Gwyneth Paltrow, who have shared their demeaning experiences on the casting couch,


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The chief of Equity says he is worried that more actors are being pressured into having sex with casting agents,
-with successful stars Helen Mirren and Gwyneth Paltrow previously sharing their stories


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Actress Charlize Theron, pictured with Sean Penn at a premiere in Cannes, revealed when she was 18
-a Hollywood director invited her to his home on a Saturday night for an audition, then made a pass at her


Equity has now established a working party to draw up audition guidelines for agents to stop actors having to endure inappropriate questions.
Malcolm Sinclair, the president of Equity, said he was 'alarmed' that an ever growing number of actors were being asked to reveal details about their sex lives or remove their clothes as part of auditions.

'The casting couch has gone on since time immemorial. But, anecdotally, it's getting worse,' said Sinclair.
'Sexual orientation, those sorts of questions – it is becoming extremely difficult.

'There have even been casting sessions where people have had to show their bodies. This is completely out of order.'

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.'

Mr Winner hit back, claiming he didn't remember asking her to turn around, adding:

'Helen’s a lovely person, she’s a great actress and I’m a huge fan, but her memory of that moment is a little flawed.'

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 pyjamas 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.'

Mr Sinclair added that actors are also frustrated about being asked their age by casting agents, which he says is 'discriminatory'.


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Equity said it is also worried about actors being asked their age in casting calls, after Katie Redford was sacked from Coronation Street
- for pretending to be 19 as she auditioned for the past of a 14-year-old


Actress Katie Redford, 25, was sacked earlier this year from Coronation Street after it was found she had pretended to be 19 to secure the part of Sarah-Louise Platt's 14-year-old daughter.