Hollywood's ongoing mistreatment of women is unfortunately a tale as old as time, and it doesn't seem to be getting much better. The latest actor to open up about their nightmarish experience in the industry is Zoe Kazan, who recalls plenty of ways that studio execs have been creepy as all hell.
While promoting her new movie The Big Sick (which, for the record, she described as a "very clean job" where everyone was "super respectful"), Kazan told the Guardian about the ways that Hollywood is still a misogynistic cesspool.
"There's so much sexual harassment on set. And there's no HR department, right?" she said. "We don't have a redress. We have our union, but no one ever resorts to that, because you don't want to get a reputation for being difficult."
The grossness doesn't just happen on set, either — it starts at the audition phase.
"I have a lot of girlfriends who are amazing actors, and many times we've talked about having to go into a room and give 'blowjob eyes.' You know, be flirty with a director or a producer," she recalled. "There'll be auditions where they'll say, 'Wear something body-conscious' and then you're aware that they're checking out your body. You leave the situation feeling not good about what just happened, but you don't really have the language for why."
Making matters worse, Kazan revealed a particularly crass conversation she had with a male producer.
"I had a producer ask me on set once if I spat or swallowed. At work," she said. "He'd say, 'Oh, it's a joke, ha ha.' But he was also paying my cheque and then watching me from the monitor as I made out with another actor — so when he tells me I look good, it feels different."
Unsurprisingly, Kazan added that when it comes to workplace harassment, her boyfriend Paul Dano has "never had to deal with that once."
While promoting her new movie The Big Sick (which, for the record, she described as a "very clean job" where everyone was "super respectful"), Kazan told the Guardian about the ways that Hollywood is still a misogynistic cesspool.
"There's so much sexual harassment on set. And there's no HR department, right?" she said. "We don't have a redress. We have our union, but no one ever resorts to that, because you don't want to get a reputation for being difficult."
The grossness doesn't just happen on set, either — it starts at the audition phase.
"I have a lot of girlfriends who are amazing actors, and many times we've talked about having to go into a room and give 'blowjob eyes.' You know, be flirty with a director or a producer," she recalled. "There'll be auditions where they'll say, 'Wear something body-conscious' and then you're aware that they're checking out your body. You leave the situation feeling not good about what just happened, but you don't really have the language for why."
Making matters worse, Kazan revealed a particularly crass conversation she had with a male producer.
"I had a producer ask me on set once if I spat or swallowed. At work," she said. "He'd say, 'Oh, it's a joke, ha ha.' But he was also paying my cheque and then watching me from the monitor as I made out with another actor — so when he tells me I look good, it feels different."
Unsurprisingly, Kazan added that when it comes to workplace harassment, her boyfriend Paul Dano has "never had to deal with that once."
