Actors and abuse

[Beorning]

Okay, here's something I'm wondering about currently.

Here in Poland, in the last few weeks, we've had a quite a few reports on emotional and physical abuse that happens to students in acting schools. It all started when one actress came out and talked about the behaviour of the professors she experienced - and then, quite a few other young actors came out and corroborrated her statements.

Based on what these actors and actresses say, there seems to be systemic problem with abuse in these schools, with some professors yelling at students, humiliating them publicly - and doing even worse things. The situations described start with things like one actress being called "a fucking whore" by her professor on a daily basis... and end with stuff like one of the professors throwing furniture at students and another one giving a female student a series of bites just to supposedly present to the class how to correctly act out passion in a scene. There was also this description of one actress being threated with expulsion, when she didn't want to strip naked during an exam...

As I said, it seems to be some sort of systemic problem, with some acting professors, directors etc. believing it's okay to shout, humiliate etc. their actors and students, because it's all art, creative process makes their emotions flare up etc. There also seems to be this belief that a prospective actors needs to be broken, because they learn to get in touch with their emotions that way. These are the justifications at least - in my opinion, the fact that some established actors and directors have huge egos plays the part, too. As does the fact that some of them are alcoholics...

I was wondering: does this kind of thing happen in other countries? Or is all of this just a problem specific to Polish acting academies?

[Fox Lokison]

Well, if you're talking about exploitation and abuse as a whole, yeah. They're definitely prevalent everywhere in the entertainment industry. There's a lot of justifications for this, including "getting ahead" and "helping young actors", but at the end of the day it's really just about not giving a shit about a person's boundaries. The creative field as a whole is RIFE with this sort of misbehavior. Unfortunately a lot of creative types also like the label of "eccentric" and delight in deviating from the norm, or being "outside the box". Problem is, not as many stop to consider why the box exists, and if they're stepping out of it for the right reasons. Some walls and boundaries exist for safety, and sanity. Yes, you can make good art when you break those, but what's the cost?

[Oniya]

I found out recently that Brendan Fraser (famous for 'The Mummy') had his career tanked because of a) complaining about someone groping him (and then the groper claimed 'it was just a joke!') and b) physical injuries from being pressured to do his own stunts, since he was an 'action movie' actor.   So, yes, I'd say it's rampant throughout the industry, not just in the academies.

[Fox Lokison]

Todrick Hall - a gay man in theatre mostly - has opened up about some experiences he had as well. The article is here, and the song Papi, where he acted it out, was actually a very profound performance for me. It's about his experiences on the casting couch, as well as some from his friends. How normalized it is in the industry to do little sexual favors like that bothered him. So did the nepotism. The song's in the article, if you're curious. It's set in a musical about his life and path to his career.

[Kathadon]

Chloe Grace Moretz, the young actress that played Hit Girl in the Kick Ass films and recently was in the live action Tom and Jerry film, has spoken very publicly about her terrible experiences with Hollywood. Even as a teenager she was overly sexualised by directors and studio execs.

Soleil Moon Frye's, of Punky Brewster fame, recent self documentary also shed light on predatory actions toward a number of very famous child actors by Hollywood stars. The hinted at "relationship" between teenage her and twenty something Charlie Sheen in the 90's was very gross.

So I seriously doubt that this is just a Polish acting school thing. Attractive, fame hungry, naïve, young actors/models seem to be prey to their own institutions almost universally. There is a reason a number of famous actors with children either shield them from the industry or discourage them from acting period.

[Mellific]

It's such a shame that this sort of behavior is tolerated at an institution, let alone behind the scenes. I come from a theater background - not professional, just for fun - and I had a pretty positive experience. The only part of it I didn't like was that we were made to work on a script for an entire weekend, at an event called 'a retreat' which made it sound like a fun sleepover but was actually grueling and exhausting work. While there, we had this 'bonding exercise' we had to do where we all sat in a circle, in the dark, and closed our eyes. everyone had to share a secret about themselves and we all promised that everything we heard in that room would stay between us and would never be used against each other. It was sort of a forced bonding moment, in my opinion, and I didn't think that was the best way to try and create trust between castmates.

A lot of actors start off with very little. Many of them don't know much about the industry, don't have any managers or publicists or a team of people telling them what to do or how to navigate things. So, a lot of the actors I know are living check to check and are only really surviving off of each gig that they manage to book. If that's your livelihood, chances are, you're willing to do a little more than people who have a steady income and job security. Unfortunately, this also creates a power dynamic where directors, producers, even other, more senior castmates, are more able to prey upon the up-and-coming actors. They normalize casting couch behavior and even public humiliation, to the point that others excuse it or say it's not that big of a deal.

No human being deserves that sort of treatment. Especially when they're just trying to follow their dreams.

[Kuroneko]

I work professionally in the industry, on the other side, in tech and design. Primarily costumes as well as makeup and special effects. It's not as bad on the production side, but there are still issues. It's all bullshit, painful, and it's effing ridiculous.

[Cydaea]

Sadly common and absolutely in the US as well. I only get very vague exposure to people familiar with the scummy side though.