So often I see the words ‘I know this sounds bad but…’ when
reading a casting call. Often it’s followed by a request for an actress to get
naked or wear revealing clothes or be painted silver, wear an elephant mask and
be coated in gravy (true). Still, they obviously don’t feel that bad. To them,
it’s the level of bad we feel eating something off the floor that’s gone beyond
the 5-second rule or the bad we feel when Netflix pops up to ask if we’re
really still watching Drag Race. We know we shouldn’t be we do it anyway
because it makes us feel good, good enough to erase that little bit of guilt.
Sure, we might have mice and we can’t remember the last time we hoovered but
that bit of cheese is fine, right? I can only imagine that’s how these people
behind the casting calls feel, they know it sounds bad but…
The problem is that this is how much of the acting industry
is run, from the people making a 2-minute short with their iPhone up to the
very, very top, as was revealed in the news this week. By all accounts,
Weinstein knew he was doing wrong but he still did it. Women have been his hit
of cheese cascading onto the floor and he’s eaten them up even though he knows
he really shouldn’t.
Hearing women calling this out is phenomenal and amidst this
horror and shock despite this hugely inevitable news, it’s felt like a small
ray of light, a little glimmer of hope that maybe this will be the catalyst for
change. But there has been much criticism regarding women not coming forward at
all and that needs to stop. As I should think has become horrifically aware to
those who haven’t experienced this industry first hand, it’s not particularly
supportive. Competition is rife, jobs are hard won and fear is worn daily.
‘I know it sounds bad but…’ Yes, we all know it sounds bad
but you still want it and I still want a job. Emma from drama school just
landed a Hollywood role and Roberto from the first play I did is now at the
National and Helena from my improv class has just been made a regular in
Corrie. Everyone seems to be getting work and the pressure mounts and you don’t
want to be that actress who clearly just doesn’t want it enough. Success is so
often measured on what you’re willing to sacrifice, from having an healthy
social life to your self-esteem, and not giving up enough is seen as a lack of
commitment, that you can’t be that motivated, that your drive isn’t as fierce
as the next woman who will do that.
I’m thankful I haven’t found myself in a situation where
I’ve felt unsafe but I have felt pressure to do things I don’t want to do.
While still at drama school, only months before graduating, we were making
short films and I was playing the lead, a character who loses her virginity by
the end of the film. One day, the director takes me to one side and tells me
that he expected me to be topless, minimum, for the role. I was 20, I was just
about to go into the real world and this was someone who had worked for many
years within the industry. Although it was absolutely the last thing I wanted
to do, I did it. I wanted to show
willing, to prove that I really wanted this. So I went through what I still
hold as the worst day of my acting career, feeling uncomfortable in a room full
of men doing something I didn’t want to do but felt powerless to do anything
about. And this was for a role I had already secured in something that no one
would ever see.
This is happening at every stage of the acting industry and
we need to stop putting the responsibility on actors to call it out. It’s
amazing that actors feel they can but the industry needs better regulations,
better support, better education to stop this from happening, and we mustn't assume that just because some actors can then they all are able to. The idea of the
casting couch has become so ingrained in our culture that we almost laugh about
it like it’s some old Hollywood myth but we know it happens and we need to make
it stop because what starts as, ‘I know this sounds bad but…’ becomes something
stronger each time they get away with it.
We should not be making actors feel guilty for not calling
things out sooner, we should be shaming the industry that allows this to happen
in the first place. Actors are made to feel grateful for their work, constantly
reminded that if they won’t do it, someone else will, and what we now need to
make sure is not to stop that person from doing what no one else will but to
stop those asking them do it. I know this sounds
bad but…
