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I remember
being in the makeup trailer.

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Producer, big producer,

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came in and asked
the hair and makeup department

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to please leave
us in privacy.

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And he proceeded to tell me

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that he had this
incredible project...

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and that he could get me
an Academy Award

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for Best Actress if I did it.

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And of course, you know, you've
got all the gold in your eyes,

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and you're like, wow,

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"A", the fact that he
thinks that about me...

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that's incredible.

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And of course I want
the opportunity to do something,

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not just to get the award,
but to work

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for this reputable man
in this business.

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I said, "I would
love to read it."

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And he said,
"Well, I'll tell you what, um...

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"I can't give the
script out yet.

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"So, why don't you just
come over to my house

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tonight or tomorrow night,
and we'll talk about it."

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And he went like this.

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When people
talk about the casting couch,

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it means a broad
array of things.

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Executives,
producers, whoever,

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their-- their power,
the thing that they have

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is the ability to put
someone in a movie.

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So, they've used that
in order to get access

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to someone they're attracted to

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and probably would never
have had a shot with.

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Starting at
the very beginning of Hollywood,

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the casting couch
was just accepted.

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The studios had
all the power.

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These men who
ran the studios

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could hire and fire
whoever they wanted

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without any kind of oversight.

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So, it read abuse.

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That's how the name came about,
because women knew

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that they would be subjected
to this kind of behavior

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if they ever hoped to work
in this business.

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How are you guys?

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I can't keep wasting
my time with Glee.

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Casting is a process.

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First, we get the script,
we look at it and see what the
roles are,

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and who's attached as
what, or who's playing what
role.

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Then, you start having sessions
with the director and the
producer.

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And the director will talk about
actors and find out who he
likes.

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Now what-- didn't have
when I started,

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was everybody's on videotape.

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So, you can go back and
see what comes at you

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from an audition on tape
as opposed to in the room,

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where an actor's
inclination is to be a little
bolder in the room.

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And on film,
less is more, always.

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I've been
party to discussions about a
person

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who might be right
for the part,

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and somebody will say,
"She's hideous,"

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or you know, "She's too fat,"
or she's...

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I mean, I've heard women
be compared to horses

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more than once on my shows.

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Oh. It's you again.

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Network
executives talking about women's
legs

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and women getting
a push-up bra,

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and if they were pretty
enough, or if they were just
plain.

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You're not gonna get a woman--
god bless him--

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who looks like Seth Rogen,
who's gonna have this career,

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or Jonah Hill, who's
gonna be cast as someone

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who could be-- can see it
as a leading man.

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You're just not.
It is a whole different way

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of judging someone's value
on screen.

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You are always asked,
"Well, take your jumper off.

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"Have you-- have you got
a vest on underneath that?

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Well, take that off."

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So that there was idea that
you could be properly perused.

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An actress came
in who was now probably 60 or
something,

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and she used to be
a beautiful young starlet,

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and she came in,
and she looked great,

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but no makeup, and she hadn't
had any plastic surgery done.

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And after she left
the director said,

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"Oh, god, that's what
she looks like now."

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And I said, and that is why
women get plastic surgery.

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When I was auditioning
for "Good Will Hunting,"

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they decided they wanted me to
do it, everyone was very
excited.

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And the casting director
much later told me

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that Harvey Weinstein
had been incensed,

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had said, or yelled,
that I was un-fuckable,

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and that...

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because of that fact,
I should not get this part.

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There's
such a normalization of
sexualizing girls,

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to the point that my
manager for a very long time--

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she's not anymore--
but when I was, like, 15 to 17,

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she would say stuff like,

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"The casting director,
he's an old man.

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"Just, like, pull your tits up,
look hot, flirt with him a
little bit.

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Like, he'll eat that shit up."

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And I'm like, yeah, you're
right, old dudes are gross.

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He's gonna eat that shit up.

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I thought I was exercising
my power over men,

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but in reality, that's part
of the grooming process.

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Here, uh, stand up
and give me a twirl.

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- Now?
- Yeah, just a quick spin.

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Oh. Sure.

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"Bombshell" definitely
showed me that so many women
were upset

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and glad that it was starting to
come out, the whole Me Too
thing.

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When most of the actresses
were reading that scene,

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they would have to stop
and start again,

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because it was very
hard not to cry.

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You realize that these
were real stories,

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and that the women
could only have a career

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if they gave in to Roger Ailes.

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Almost every actress came in,
though, and said,

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"I gotta do this movie,
'cause this happens

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all the time to me
and to all my friends."

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I had my first job
when I was 16 years old.

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I got a call from
a famous producer.

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Everybody would go to his house,
you know?

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And... that's where
the meetings took place,

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and the meetings always
took place in his bedroom.

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He wanted to show me
a teaser trailer

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that they had shot, to show
me what the movie was about,

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even though there was no script.

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And when the curtains closed

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and he was starting
the play button,

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the hand came over to my thigh,
and he goes,

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"Do you want this movie?
You really want this movie?"

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And I remember just standing up
and running out,

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and going "My ride's here."

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I couldn't even drive, I didn't
have my driver's license.

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I had a acting coach,

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and the whole hour that we
were supposed to be training,

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he just talked about...
a specific actor

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who after they had sex,
she blew up.

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I reminded him so much of her.

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And like, that's the moment
that I was like,

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oh my God, I don't
have the power,

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and I thought that
I was doing a thing

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that I'm not doing.

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I'm not doing the
thing right now.

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I'm not-- this is part of...
the game.

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In the '60s,
my mother was under contract to
Hitchcock.

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He sort of gave
her an ultimatum

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of "You either fuck me,
or I'm gonna ruin your career,"

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and she chose to say,
"Okay, go ahead, try."

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And he did.

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I mean, he blackballed her

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and called every studio head,
every friend of his

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and said, "Don't hire her,
she's a pain in the ass.

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She's trouble."

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Unfortunately, a lot of
actresses in this town

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don't know that they can say no.

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It's strange, because you think,
why would someone do that?

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That's such an obvious way
to walk straight into a trap.

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But when you want
something so bad, to act.

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You know?

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When you're so
desperate to do that,

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the last thing you want is to,
like, let fear get in the way,

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and you tell yourself,
you're like...

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"Okay, maybe meeting--
I'm gonna g--"

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00:08:04,610 --> 00:08:05,819
it's always "I'm gonna give him
the benefit of the doubt."

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I was getting calls,

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I was the president at the time
of SAG-AFTRA.

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And first, we do guidelines,

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saying you cannot
have auditions

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in hotel rooms
or private residence

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without having a support
person that you bring with you.

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And so, actors or members,
when they're going in,

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they can say, "I
can't do that there,

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"because my-- my union
won't let me, I'm sorry.

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I can call the union, but you
know, if you-- but I-- they
won't let me."

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The casting couch
is only changing

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because women have changed it.

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They do have a voice to speak up
and start saying, "You can't do
that,

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and you're gonna go down
because of that."

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I think it's only the
women changing it,

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and if they don't stop changing,
it's gonna come right back.

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It's gonna bubble
to the top again.

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Once you have your cast, you
proceed to the biggest battle of
all,

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and that's with the studio.

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Studios have the money
to finance the film.

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00:09:01,083 --> 00:09:03,168
They also have the ability
to make or break a film.