“It’s not rocket science, darling,” a casting director tells Florence Pugh (“Lady Macbeth”) in short film “Leading Lady Parts.” “We’re just asking you to be thin and curvy, sexy and innocent.” Nope, it’s not rocket science: it’s an audition for a leading lady role. And it’s a nightmare.
Written and directed by Jessica Swale, “Leading Lady Parts” is a collaborative effort inspired by the Time’s Up movement. Produced by Gemma Arterton’s Rebel Park, the short satirizes the routine humiliation actresses face during the audition process. Performers such as Pugh, Felicity Jones, “Game of Thrones'” Emilia Clarke and Lena Headey, and Gemma Chan (“Humans”) all play themselves and read for a leading lady part. The casting directors (portrayed by Arterton, Catherine Tate, and Anthony Welsh) make increasingly offensive requests and act as if they’re no big deal.
Jones is invited to take her clothes off while she auditions, while Pugh is body-shamed (“Could you just be a bit — thinner?”). The producers want Clarke to smile during her very dramatic monologue, and reject Headey right out of the gate for being too old (“We’re after leading ladies, not leading lady’s mum”). The women of color are treated worst of all: Chan is asked to “be a bit more white” and black actress Wunmi Mosaku (“Fantastic Beasts”) isn’t allowed to read for the part at all.
According to The LA Times, “Leading Lady Parts” is the first in a planned series of shorts that “will address gender imbalance in the workplace, both within the film industry and in other various industries.” Arterton hopes the short will also draw attention to Time’s Up UK’s anti-harassment Justice and Equality Fund.
“Leading Lady Parts” marks Rebel Park’s first project. After Arterton received Swale’s script, the short’s cast and funding were set in three weeks. The project was filmed over a few days at Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden, UK, with the use of donated studio space and equipment. “Numerous actresses wanted to be part of the effort, and everyone worked for free,” the Times reveals.
Rebel Park will announce the rest of its planned slate later this year. “Rebel Park came together about three years ago because, at the time, we [Arterton, Jessica Malik, and Jessica Parker] felt that there was a lack of good female-centric stories,” Arterton said. “We also want to get more women behind the camera. That’s our agenda: Do more female-centric stuff. Not strictly, but that’s [what] I’m interested in.”
Check out “Leading Lady Parts,” and its twist ending, below.
