I am an aspiring actress. [Recently]
I went for an audition in Brooklyn. This casting notice was placed in Back
Stage. Anyway, the Director,
Producer,
and Writer, who are all the smae individual, gave me a call back
for Monday. The call back location was at his house. I did not know this until
I got there.
I was a dingy, broken down and creepy place. It was to double as a location
for his film (a horror movie). He also stated that
there
was
a love scene in his film and would I have any objections to it. I said "no," and
felt comfortable saying it. Well, he wanted me to do this (simulated) love
scene with him, with my clothes off. Remind you, just he and I in this
creepy room that he calls home.
My question to you is: was I hustled into thinking that I
may get this part if I did this love scene with him, or is this a normal thing?
Do producers
have actors/actresses go to their home and do love scenes? And, could I have
ruined my chances of becoming an actress if he was the real thing, cuz I said
some really nasty things to him and called him a perv trying to get his (bleeps)
off.
–Donna in Staten Island
This guy may claim to be a writer/producer/director, but the truth is, he’s
just a creep. For the record, it is NOT normal for a producer to You were absolutely
right to call him that and get the hell out of there. The important thing I’d
like to stress is that you should never have been in there in the first place.
Casting shouldn’t be done at somebody’s house. Period. Whatever the building
is, if you don’t feel safe going into an environment, don’t go. I’m glad you
got out of there with only rattled nerves, but it could have been a lot worse.
This guy was using an ad in Back
Stage to lure you over to his house, all
with the intention of getting you to take your clothes off. It might not be
illegal, but it’s certainly unethical, and clearly violates all standards of
acceptable behavior. Call Back Stage and investigate what the complaint process
is for the magazine. At the least, you might get him banned from placing more
ads to lure over more young women.
When nudity is involved in a role, a red flag should always go up. While there
are cases where a legitimate audition will require nudity – such as for the
strippers in GO – the situation should be more professional because of it,
not less. For instance, most casting directors will insist on having a female
staff member in the room at all times.
You had a horrible experience that fortunately didn’t become any worse. Don’t
let it sour you on acting. Rather, let it sharpen your creep detectors, so
it won’t happen again.