https://www.vpointnews.com/Article/7437/the-acting-industry-has-a-casting-couch-sex-problem
Aspiring actors are increasingly being put through "casting couch" style auditions in Britain, according to Equity.
The actors' union has reported a rise in the number of complaints from aspiring thesps about the auditioning process, Equity President Malcolm Sinclair told The Observer.
Asking actors to remove clothes during casting sessions and questioning them about their sex lives featured among the grievances.
Sinclair described a "sexual prurience" around auditions involving young actors.
"The casting couch has gone on since time immemorial. But, anecdotally, it’s getting worse.
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."
The trade union is so concerned it has set up a working party to draw up industry guidelines on the issue, Sinclair said.
Thandie Newton and Ryan Phillippe have both discussed their experiences of sexual exploitation and harrassment in the industry
Several high-profile actors have revealed their experiences of sexual harassment in Hollywood over the years, while Myleene Klass once said: "I don’t think there’s a single person in the entertainment industry that hasn’t, at some point, experienced the casting couch thing."
Aspiring actors are increasingly being put through "casting couch" style auditions in Britain, according to Equity.
The actors' union has reported a rise in the number of complaints from aspiring thesps about the auditioning process, Equity President Malcolm Sinclair told The Observer.
Asking actors to remove clothes during casting sessions and questioning them about their sex lives featured among the grievances.
Sinclair described a "sexual prurience" around auditions involving young actors.
"The casting couch has gone on since time immemorial. But, anecdotally, it’s getting worse.
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."
The trade union is so concerned it has set up a working party to draw up industry guidelines on the issue, Sinclair said.
Thandie Newton and Ryan Phillippe have both discussed their experiences of sexual exploitation and harrassment in the industry
Several high-profile actors have revealed their experiences of sexual harassment in Hollywood over the years, while Myleene Klass once said: "I don’t think there’s a single person in the entertainment industry that hasn’t, at some point, experienced the casting couch thing."
- "When I was just starting out, someone suggested that we finish a meeting in the bedroom, I left. I was pretty shocked." - Gwyneth Paltrow
- "The director asked me to sit with my legs apart – the camera was positioned where it could see up my skirt – to put my leg over the arm of the chair and before I started my dialogue, [I was told] to think about the character I was supposed to be having the dialogue with and how it felt to be made love to by this person. It turned out the director used to show that video late at night to interested parties at his house – a video of me touching myself with a camera up my skirt." - Thandie Newton
- "Any casting couch shyt I've experienced has been since I've become famous. It's really heartbreaking. Some of these people! Like Hollywood legends. You think you're going to meet them and you're so excited, like, 'I believe this person wants to have a conversation with me,' and you get there and you realize that's not what they want at all." - Megan Fox
- In April 2010, Ryan Phillippe told DJ Howard Stern that he fled a “creepy” casting-couch session when he was 18 or 19.
