Everyone wants to be famous and live the life of a celebrity — which is why Hollywood is a breeding ground for powerful jerks who want to take advantage of young, desperate ingenues. It’s so prevalent, there’s even a term for it: the casting couch. And unsurprisingly, many famous women have spoken out about their own experiences dealing with sexism at auditions.
For many young actors, the casting couch is a situation where producers or directors pressure them to do sexual favors in return for a part in a movie or TV show. It sounds crazy, but many young stars who are just starting out feel intimidated by big, powerful movie execs and don’t know that they can say no, walk out of the audition room, or just choose not have sex.
MUST SEE: 14 Celebrities That Had Super Secret Weddings
Many actresses who are A-list stars today have experienced this too, and have candidly revealed the not-so-glamorous reality of what really goes down in audition rooms. Watch the video to see four casting couch stories that’ll seriously make you see the industry in a whole new light.
For Lisa Rinna, although her experience left her in tears (and without a job), in the end, she had the last laugh. After being cast in the popular ’90s soap opera Melrose Place, she got the opportunity to rub her newfound success in the producer’s face while at a red carpet event. She described in her memoir Starlit that she threatened the producer once she saw him.
“I know everyone in this town and if you ever do what you did to me again to anyone else I will tell everyone your dirty secret,” she told him.
Now if only other producers got a taste of their own medicine like that.
