Actress Alison Brie has experienced a pretty great decade, career-wise, achieving double breakout status from her work on both Mad Men and Community, and she's set for what looks to be one of her most interesting projects yet, Jenji Kohan's Netflix comedy GLOW. While promoting the impending premiere, Brie shared a story about a past audition for HBO's bro-centric Entourage that was neither comedic nor dramatic in nature. It was just kinda icky.
Early in my career, I auditioned for three lines on an episode of Entourage that I had to go on in a bikini! Or like shorts, the tiniest shorts [sic]. And they were like, 'Okay, can you take your top off now?'
Well, that's one way to turn what might have been a positive experience for someone into a memory to be shared with thousands of people at a TV festival years after Entourage came to an end, without the film included. That particular angle might not be the most universally relatable, but Alison Brie's story highlights an issue that continues to plague the entertainment industry on screens both big and small. And while awkward and gross requests for an actress to take her top off may seem befitting for a show like Entourage, that hardly makes it permissible or less ew.
It's worth pointing out that following the GLOW panel at this year's ATX festival, Alison Brie publicly cleared up something that many were taking out of context when EW reported the quote. Here's how she put it on Twitter.
It's a drop in a bucket as far as bringing cleanliness back to the conversation, but I suppose all lines drawn in these cases are good ones. Of course, this wasn't an isolated incident, as the world of casting so often goes unchecked by those with the power to stop it. Brie's GLOW co-star Betty Gilpin shared one instance where, after completing an audition in front of a room full of men, she was unnecessarily asked to then take her hair down.
Alison Brie went on a little further with how frustratingly difficult auditioning for female roles can be.
I've gone through auditions for Marvel movies and auditioned a million times for roles with three lines and you are begging for them. And I'd be glad to get them! It's brutal, it just is.
Thankfully, creators like Orange is the New Black's Jenji Kohan are dedicated to creating entertainment where female creativity can bloom, and audiences can watch Brie and Gilpin and more when GLOW makes it debut on Friday, June 23, at 12:01 a.m. PT. To see what else the streaming giant has coming, head to our 2017 Netflix schedule, and then hit up our summer premiere schedule to see what the rest of TV has coming.
