[music]
ROBIN WRIGHT: I remember being in the makeup trailer.
Producer, big producer,
came in and asked the hair and makeup department
to please leave us in privacy.
And he proceeded to tell me
that he had this incredible project...
and that he could get me an Academy Award
for Best Actress if I did it.
And of course, you know, you've got all the gold in your eyes,
and you're like, wow,
"A", the fact that he thinks that about me...
that's incredible.
And of course I want the opportunity to do something,
not just to get the award, but to work
for this reputable man in this business.
I said, "I would love to read it."
And he said, "Well, I'll tell you what, um...
"I can't give the script out yet.
"So, why don't you just come over to my house
tonight or tomorrow night, and we'll talk about it."
And he went like this.
REBECCA KEEGAN: When people talk about the casting couch,
it means a broad array of things.
Executives, producers, whoever,
their-- their power, the thing that they have
is the ability to put someone in a movie.
So, they've used that in order to get access
to someone they're attracted to
and probably would never have had a shot with.
MATTHEW BELLONI: Starting at the very beginning of Hollywood,
the casting couch was just accepted.
The studios had all the power.
These men who ran the studios
could hire and fire whoever they wanted
without any kind of oversight.
So, it read abuse.
That's how the name came about, because women knew
that they would be subjected to this kind of behavior
if they ever hoped to work in this business.
How are you guys?
I can't keep wasting my time with Glee.
ALLISON JONES: Casting is a process.
First, we get the script, we look at it and see what the roles are,
and who's attached as what, or who's playing what role.
Then, you start having sessions with the director and the producer.
And the director will talk about actors and find out who he likes.
Now what-- didn't have when I started,
was everybody's on videotape.
So, you can go back and see what comes at you
from an audition on tape as opposed to in the room,
where an actor's inclination is to be a little bolder in the room.
And on film, less is more, always.
RACHAEL HOROVITZ: I've been party to discussions about a person
who might be right for the part,
and somebody will say, "She's hideous,"
or you know, "She's too fat," or she's...
I mean, I've heard women be compared to horses
more than once on my shows.
Oh. It's you again.
ALLISON: Network executives talking about women's legs
and women getting a push-up bra,
and if they were pretty enough, or if they were just plain.
You're not gonna get a woman-- god bless him--
who looks like Seth Rogen, who's gonna have this career,
or Jonah Hill, who's gonna be cast as someone
who could be-- can see it as a leading man.
You're just not. It is a whole different way
of judging someone's value on screen.
You are always asked, "Well, take your jumper off.
"Have you-- have you got a vest on underneath that?
Well, take that off."
So that there was idea that you could be properly perused.
ALLISON: An actress came in who was now probably 60 or something,
and she used to be a beautiful young starlet,
and she came in, and she looked great,
but no makeup, and she hadn't had any plastic surgery done.
And after she left the director said,
"Oh, god, that's what she looks like now."
And I said, and that is why women get plastic surgery.
MINNIE: When I was auditioning for "Good Will Hunting,"
they decided they wanted me to do it, everyone was very excited.
And the casting director much later told me
that Harvey Weinstein had been incensed,
had said, or yelled, that I was un-fuckable,
and that...
because of that fact, I should not get this part.
KIERSEY CLEMONS: There's such a normalization of sexualizing girls,
to the point that my manager for a very long time--
she's not anymore-- but when I was, like, 15 to 17,
she would say stuff like,
"The casting director, he's an old man.
"Just, like, pull your tits up, look hot, flirt with him a little bit.
Like, he'll eat that shit up."
And I'm like, yeah, you're right, old dudes are gross.
He's gonna eat that shit up.
I thought I was exercising my power over men,
but in reality, that's part of the grooming process.
Here, uh, stand up and give me a twirl.
- Now? - Yeah, just a quick spin.
Oh. Sure.
ALLISON: "Bombshell" definitely showed me that so many women were upset
and glad that it was starting to come out, the whole Me Too thing.
When most of the actresses were reading that scene,
they would have to stop and start again,
because it was very hard not to cry.
You realize that these were real stories,
and that the women could only have a career
if they gave in to Roger Ailes.
Almost every actress came in, though, and said,
"I gotta do this movie, 'cause this happens
all the time to me and to all my friends."
ROBIN: I had my first job when I was 16 years old.
I got a call from a famous producer.
Everybody would go to his house, you know?
And... that's where the meetings took place,
and the meetings always took place in his bedroom.
He wanted to show me a teaser trailer
that they had shot, to show me what the movie was about,
even though there was no script.
And when the curtains closed
and he was starting the play button,
the hand came over to my thigh, and he goes,
"Do you want this movie? You really want this movie?"
And I remember just standing up and running out,
and going "My ride's here."
I couldn't even drive, I didn't have my driver's license.
KIERSEY: I had a acting coach,
and the whole hour that we were supposed to be training,
he just talked about... a specific actor
who after they had sex, she blew up.
I reminded him so much of her.
And like, that's the moment that I was like,
oh my God, I don't have the power,
and I thought that I was doing a thing
that I'm not doing.
I'm not doing the thing right now.
I'm not-- this is part of... the game.
MELANIE GRIFFITH: In the '60s, my mother was under contract to Hitchcock.
He sort of gave her an ultimatum
of "You either fuck me, or I'm gonna ruin your career,"
and she chose to say, "Okay, go ahead, try."
And he did.
I mean, he blackballed her
and called every studio head, every friend of his
and said, "Don't hire her, she's a pain in the ass.
She's trouble."
Unfortunately, a lot of actresses in this town
don't know that they can say no.
It's strange, because you think, why would someone do that?
That's such an obvious way to walk straight into a trap.
But when you want something so bad, to act.
[chuckles] You know?
When you're so desperate to do that,
the last thing you want is to, like, let fear get in the way,
and you tell yourself, you're like...
"Okay, maybe meeting-- I'm gonna g--"
it's always "I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt."
GABRIELLE CARTERIS: I was getting calls,
I was the president at the time of SAG-AFTRA.
And first, we do guidelines,
saying you cannot have auditions
in hotel rooms or private residence
without having a support person that you bring with you.
And so, actors or members, when they're going in,
they can say, "I can't do that there,
"because my-- my union won't let me, I'm sorry.
I can call the union, but you know, if you-- but I-- they won't let me."
ALLISON: The casting couch is only changing
because women have changed it.
They do have a voice to speak up and start saying, "You can't do that,
and you're gonna go down because of that."
I think it's only the women changing it,
and if they don't stop changing, it's gonna come right back.
It's gonna bubble to the top again.
Once you have your cast, you proceed to the biggest battle of all,
and that's with the studio.
Studios have the money to finance the film.
They also have the ability to make or break a film.