Veteran actor Michael Caine has said the casting couch was an open secret in Hollywood. The year-old actor said though he knew about producers like Harvey Weinstein asking for sexual favours from aspiring starlets in return for a role, he did not know the extent of the problem. It was almost a joke. We knew it existed. But my view of the casting couch was that a young lady went to do an audition, the producer said, 'Well you've got the part if you did this', she said 'I'm not doing that' and he said 'well you haven't got the part' and she left. But it happened and there was nothing I could do about it. I was a nobody in Hollywood. I didn't have the power of the big producers. But I never thought there were any actual physical attacks," Caine told Radio Times magazine. The King of Thieves actor said he believes Weinstein's scandal will serve as an example for others in the wake of the MeToo juggernaut.
The casting couch is a euphemism [1] for the practice of soliciting sexual favors from a job applicant in exchange for employment in the entertainment industry , primarily acting roles. Predominantly male casting directors and film producers use the casting couch to extract sex from aspiring actors in Hollywood , Bollywood , [3] [4] Broadway , and other segments of the industry. The casting couch is illegal under United States and California law. In the United States, the majority of lawsuits related to the practice are settled , resulting in a lack of case law. According to economists Thomas Borcherding and Darren Filson, the high risk and returns in Hollywood cinema encourage the casting couch phenomenon. The possibility of high returns incentivizes unestablished actors to accept minimal wages in exchange for roles. With the exception of a few extremely talented actors, producers are unable to evaluate the aptitude of the vast majority of qualified actors due to uncertainty. As a result, some actors give sexual favors to producers to obtain a perceived advantage in the casting ; the casting couch functions as a counterpayment that effectively reduces their wages. This creates a conflict of interest in which corrupt producers substitute aptitude an unquantifiable variable with sexual activity in their decision-making. Actors who submit to the casting couch are not guaranteed roles, as there is an abundance of actors who partake in the practice.
Over time, the phrase has become emblematic of the way that sexual aggression has been normalized in an industry dominated by powerful men. How did this seemingly innocuous phrase become so ensconced as a standard show-business trope? The casting-couch tradition originated in theatrical productions on Broadway well before the Hollywood film industry became the new locus of the entertainment world. The phrase casting couch became linked to the Shuberts, at least in retrospect, as the etymologist Peter Tamony discovered. By then, however, the idea of the casting couch had moved out west to Hollywood. But in , a silent stag film may have been responsible for introducing the expression to a wide audience. The film was titled The Casting Couch , and it featured the stereotypical scenario of an actress auditioning for a role and giving in to the salacious demands of the casting director. Five years later, in , casting couch was considered a harmless enough phrase that it could be casually dropped into a newspaper column about Hollywood. Despite these public appearances, the notion of the casting couch may still have been something of a Hollywood in-joke. Just a few years later, in , a writer for the Chicago Tribune seemed to miss the suggestiveness of the phrase, using it to refer to a female-run casting bureau at a local radio station.
Veteran actor Michael Caine has said the casting couch was an open secret in Hollywood. The year-old actor said though he knew about producers like Harvey Weinstein asking for sexual favours from aspiring starlets in return for a role, he did not know the extent of the problem. It was almost a joke. We knew it existed. But my view of the casting couch was that a young lady went to do an audition, the producer said, 'Well you've got the part if you did this', she said 'I'm not doing that' and he said 'well you haven't got the part' and she left.
But it happened and there was nothing I could do about it. I was a nobody in Hollywood. I didn't have the power of the big producers. But I never thought there were any actual physical attacks," Caine told Radio Times magazine. The King of Thieves actor said he believes Weinstein's scandal will serve as an example for others in the wake of the MeToo juggernaut.
Harvey was a singular character in himself. But there is one great thing if it can be described like that, about Harvey and his behaviour. It's that actresses are safe now. No producer would dare to do anything sexually, because he knows he's going to wind up in court, which is exactly where Harvey is," he said. Follow htshowbiz for more. Press Trust of India. Thank you for subscribing to our daily newsletter. Has Mandir edged out Mandal agenda?
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