It’s a tale as old as time – woman sees casting call in trade publication, woman responds to casting call, woman shows up to casting call, woman does what she’s asked with no hesitation, woman goes home and waits by the phone, only to do it all over again the next day. Except in this version, it turns out that the woman did it all as part of a new prank movie that takes advantage of unsuspecting people in order to eventually humiliate them.
Aspiring actress Katey Zouck told the Los Angeles Times all about her recent humiliating casting call experience, as she showed up to a South Central Los Angeles address to audition for a role in a film entitled, May the Best Man Win. In all, Zouck claims that she was one of 50 actresses to respond to the ad, while only seven actually fell for this prank that had them wearing black face, dressing up as Hitler and shouting Nazi propaganda with the hopes of landing an acting gig.
The prank casting session was the work of What If It Barks Films, a London production company whose principals have deep experience in the world of reality TV.
The movie’s writer and producer, Lee Hupfield, produced episodes of “Big Brother: UK.” One of its executive producers, Andrew Newman, served as a consultant on the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat,” while producer Andrew O’Connor is managing director of Objective Productions, the company responsible for the long running British hidden camera show “Balls of Steel.”
“May The Best Man Win” is a real movie, with a budget of $800,000, about two men who try to out-do each other by pulling outrageous stunts. The casting call wasn’t an audition for principal roles within the movie, but for a film-within-a-film segment about women who become the victims of those stunts.
“The joke is, ‘Will these women audition for a part that they think is immorally reflected?'” explained Oliver Obst, another executive producer of the film. (Via the L.A. Times)
Zouck claimed that she smelled a rat after two hours at the location, because she eventually realized that the people walking around with headsets were production assistants, while the “casting directors” were asking questions about whether or not they felt comfortable being pranked.
Other pranks included the stars being “pelted by what appears to be dog feces, and two people dressed as genitalia appearing to engage in sexual intercourse while ice skating.” Riveting stuff.
But don’t be upset with Hupfield and Obst. They’re just following the path that others have paved for them. In fact, I’ll allow Obst to really drive home the main point.
“Someone was nominated for an Oscar for playing Hitler,” he said. “So I don’t see what the issue is.”
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