The Hollywood Casting Couch: Celebs Describe Their Encounter

By Johny in Entertainment On 10th November 2016

The casting couch’s existence is not denied by many people, though most will argue that it isn’t as bad as it used to be. Sometimes, these requests are made to look like they’re necessary for the audition, while others use the audition as a place to meet young and impressionable young would-be stars. If the actor denies these requests/demands, well, you know what they say, “Hollywood is a small town.” There are some big-name stars who have spoken out publicly against the powerful people in Hollywood using casting couches as well, and we’d like to give a little space for them and their stories.

#1 Jenny McCarthy

She claims that Steven Seagal was doing the auditions for Under Siege 2 and put her in a very awkward situation when it was her time to read. She says, "I was wearing this very baggy dress, which I always wear to auditions, with my hair pulled back. I am listening to him go on and on about how he found his soul in Asia and is one with himself and whatever. When I said, "Well, I'm ready to read," he said, "Stand up, you have to be kind of sexy in the movie and in that dress, I can't tell." I stand up and he goes, "Take off your dress." I said, "What?" and he said, "There's nudity." I said, "No, there's not, or I wouldn't be here right now." He said again, "There's nudity," and I said, "The pages are right in front of me. There's no nudity." He goes, "Take off your dress." I just started crying and said, "Rent my [Playboy] video, you a**hole!" and ran out to the car."

#2 Lisa Rinna

She experienced a scary situation during an audition for a popular TV show. The actress claims, "I lost a role on a BIG TV series because I wouldn't bend over a chair in a producer's office for âÂ€Â˜just a quickie' âÂ€Â˜Just pull your panties down and bend over and the role is yours' he said to me." Later on, after Rinna became a bigger star in the industry, appearing on the smash hit, Melrose Place, she ran into the greasy producer again, this time threatening 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."

#3 Woody Harrelson

Woody Harrelson has some weird and disturbing stories. He claims, "Every [acting] business I ever entered into in New York seemed to have a casting couch. I've seen so many people sleep with people they loathe in order to further their ambition." There's another story that tells of a proposition by a female executive to sleep with Harrelson while her husband watched. It's unclear what the end result was, but it's just another example of how the casting couches impacts everyone in the industry.

#4 Cher

She tweeted, "Ladies. We r not disposable blow up dolls, 4rich mens pleasure. I had scary experience w/rich important film prod. & I was Cher!! I wanted job." Cher clarified the Tweet a bit with the follow-up Tweet, "It was interview 4film. I was young. I left b4 it got totally uncomfortable!! I can take care of myself, but shouldn't have 2."

#5 Gwyneth Paltrow

Even though Gwyneth Paltrow says she never accepted the invitation she was given, she is certainly empathetic to those who have fallen victim, saying, "When I was just starting out, someone suggested that we finish a meeting in the bedroom. I left. I was pretty shocked. I could see how someone who didn't know better might worry, âÂ€Â˜My career will be ruined if I don't give this guy a bl*w j*b!'"

#6 Susan Sarandon

She said that she had done it, adding, "It was not successful for either of us I just went into a room, and a guy practically threw me on the desk It was my early days in New York, and it was really disgusting. It wasn't like I gave it a second though, it was so badly done." While Sarandon seems to shrug it off easily, this sounds a lot like attempted r*pe and sexual assault.

#7 Ryan Phillippe

While giving an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Ryan Phillippe was asked if he ever had any casting couch experiences in his career. He said that he had, explaining, "It happened once early on in my career He wanted me to come over to his house for a rehearsal. But then I was supposed to take my shirt off for that rehearsal. And that's when I left." When asked how long ago this was, Phillippe said that he was "18 or 19" but "I looked like I was 13. Yeah. It was creepy."

#8 Charlize Theron

When she was first breaking into the industry, the blonde goddess was asked to give an unorthodox audition for a role that she wanted: "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 He was in his Hugh Hefner pajamasI go inside and he's offering me a drink, and I'm thinking, âÂ€Â˜My God this acting stuff is very relaxed.' But it soon becomes very clear what the situation was. I was like, âÂ€Â˜Not going to happen! Got the wrong girl, buddy!'"

#9 Helen Mirren

Mirren said that "Michael Winner asked her to show off her body more in an audition, telling her to turn around, etc." She added, "I was mortified and incredibly angry. 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." While Winner said that he didn't remember doing any of this, he also said that, if he did, he was only following the casting director's orders.

#10 Judy Garland

In Judy Garland's biography, there is a section that accuses producer Louis B. Mayerthe second "M" in MGM studiosof sexually assaulting her. The story suggests that when Garland was singing for Mayer, he placed his hand on her breast and said, "this is where you sing from." Garland, disgusted by the groping, said in return, "Mr. Mayer, don't you ever do that again. If you want to tell me where I sing from, just point."

#11 Mickey Rourke

Rourke said. "I went to acting school and broke my ass, studied hard. But if you take a girl from the Midwest with a pretty face, and instead of inviting them in for an audition in the morning, the directors invite them for dinner at night? I can recall with certain women, we'd go out, I'd park the car on Sunset (Boulevard), and by the time I'd got to the curb there'd be three or four producers handing them cards. That kind of thing makes me act a bit like Attila the Hun. There's ways you get a job, and ways you get a job."

#12 Corey Feldman

He hasn't been shy about calling out the casting couch process and how it affects the young actors in the industry either, stating that "the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia. That's the biggest problem for children in this industry. It's the big secret" Feldman went on to say, "I was surrounded by [pedophiles] when I was 14 years old. Didn't even know it. It wasn't until I was old enough to realize what they were and what they wanted till I went, Oh, my God. They were everywhere [T]here's a lot of good people in this industry, but there's also a lot of really, really sick, corrupt people. And there are people who have gotten away with it for so long that they feel they're above the law, and that's got to change."

#13 Rose McGowan

In a Tweet responding to a #WhyWomenDontReport hashtag on Twitter, McGowan wrote: "A (female) criminal attorney said because I'd done a sex scene in a film I would never win against the studio head #WhyWomenDontReport." McGowan followed that up with, "Because it's been an open secret in Hollywood/Media & they shamed me while adulating my r*pist #WhyWomenDontReport." After that, she concluded with, "It is time for some goddamned honesty in this world."

#14 Thandie Newton

Newton explains, "It was a screen test. There were two other people in the room the director and the casting director, who was a woman. 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."

#15 Megan Fox

She claims that "Any casting couch s**t 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, âÂ€Â˜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." Yet, Fox had mentioned in another interview that her first audition for Michael Bay for the role in Transformers, before she was famous, was a weird onea very casting-couch-like interview. Bay reportedly had Fox wash his Ferrari, while he filmed it. Even if she doesn't associate this type of thing with a "casting couch," it sure sounds odd. The tape has apparently gone missing too.

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