Imagine an actress finally reaching a place in her career where she's so famous that she doesn't have to audition anymore. That’s the dream for a number of aspiring performers, and a hallowed benchmark that actress Emmy Rossum has attained after years on the popular dramedy Shameless. But becoming a famous actress doesn’t shield one from the grip of sexism—a fact Rossum was reminded of when she was recently asked to sign on for an unnamed big movie. The part was hers, no audition necessary. But there was just one (gross) caveat: the director wanted her to visit his office in a bikini.
Rossum told this story during The Hollywood Reporter’s comedy actress roundtable, saying that she got the offer about a year ago. “My agent called me and was like, ‘I’m so embarrassed to make this call, but there’s a big movie and they’re going to offer it to you. They really love your work on the show. But the director wants you to come into his office in a bikini. There’s no audition. That’s all you have to do.’ ”
That’s all she had to do. Rossum, despite being horrified, didn’t immediately reject the inappropriate request. At first she was puzzled, considering how frequently she shows her body in Shameless. Then she realized the director may have wanted to see her swimwear in person because “he wanted to know if I was fat now,” she said.
“And I actually had this moment like, ‘Well, how good is the part?’ ” Rossum said. “For a second, I was like, ‘Would I do it? Send me the script. Maybe the character is in a bikini in the movie.’ ”
Rossum got her hands on the script and, wouldn’t you know it, there wasn’t one bikini scene in the entire film—nor was there any nudity. As she recalls it now, she can’t help but darkly mock the director, speaking in his voice: ” ‘We really love your work, but we just want to see how tight your ass is.’ Are you fucking kidding me? Last time I checked, I’m not a fucking model.”
Though Rossum eventually passed on the experience, it made her worry about all the younger, lower-profile actresses who are still scrapping for roles and would have likely taken the bikini meeting. After all, there are far more insidious things going on in Hollywood, and if a director would have the gall to ask someone at Rossum’s level to do such a thing, there’s no telling what might be asked of young up-and-comers. “If somebody with my years in the business would think, ‘Well, I wonder if it’s worth it,’ then what would a girl who doesn’t have my success do? She would do it.”
Rossum actually wouldn’t have to look far to find that girl—she could turn to Alison Brie. The Community and Mad Men actress, who will soon lead the Netflix series Glow, recently revealed that she was once asked to audition for the HBO series Entourage in a skimpy bikini-tiny-shorts combo. Brie complied, but by the end of the audition, the casting folks had one more request for her: “They were like, ‘O.K., can you take your top off now?’ ”
