HowlRound Theatre Commons: In the spring of 2021, the final semester of my undergraduate acting program, we had a routine Q&A session with a prominent casting director in Los Angeles to prepare for our end-of-the-year showcase. I, an emerging intimacy director, asked him about his experience with intimacy in the industry and what he knew of the professional casting process when the role involved nudity. To my dismay, he began to explain what he referred to as “body checks” that were performed at callbacks.
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I find this interesting. I am a big horror movie fan and I actively seek out behind the scenes information and stories, especially for a lot of older slasher movies which have a tendency to range from mundane to absolutely insane. A common thread that is brought up is the topic of nudity in these movies. Slashers were long used as a way to punish behaviors that were commonly seen as “bad” like sex, drugs, alcohol, etc… So therefore nudity is a hot topic when discussing these films. I remember hearing stories of actresses being pressured into shooting nude scenes when they were not comfortable with it because otherwise they would be fired. These body checks seem especially vile when thinking about the fact that these directors were trying to find a perfect body to “inflict” violence upon. The more low budget the film the more common this is as they wanted to sell as many tickets as possible and therefore wanted the most attractive bodies for sex scenes.
The first time I ever heard of an intimacy director was when I worked with one, and I remember being very confused. I was working in a student theatre company and we were putting on a play with high levels of female to female intimacy. These young straight student actors were faced with quite a challenge, but before I was introduced to the intimacy director, I had just figured they would have to figure out a way to navigate the many intricate challenges of this position. Now having learned about what that work entails, and seeing how an intimacy director can help protect and support the production process, I strongly believe in their efficacy. It keeps the production process ethical, and also helps everyone to feel more comfortable and safe. This article was very enlightening in the matter of how and why intentions need to be monitored in production processes. For a piece to be ethical, there has to be respect, consent, and equitability in all nature of the project, which is why intimacy directors are so important.
My experience in productions that require an intimacy director or involve any nudity is minimal, if existence at all, so it is helpful for me to learn a little bit about the conversation around this. Immediately from the title, the idea of something called a “body check” sounds awful, triggering, and just all around concerning for the actors auditioning for the roles. I think Stelk does a great job of breaking this down and offering progress or solutions to helping move this in a much safer and generally better direction. It does sound like this roots from fatphobia and transphobia, and generally a negative perception of certain types of bodies: the concept of a “body check” implies that someone’s physical features are being examined and judged. I think that having intimacy or nudity can be crucial to certain pieces of theater or film, but it does not have to come at the expense of the comfort of the actors during the callback process.
Wow I am shocked that I have never heard of the body check process. Maybe it was because it was so normalized in the industry that people were told not to speak out? It just doesn’t make sense to me to have to see someone’s nude body before hiring because that might change their ability to be right for a role. While looks have some part to do with casting it should have never gone to the point where you have to reveal yourself in front of a room of people. It’s completely objectifying and the article makes a good point that it does feed into this unrealistic body standard that is expected from society. It makes me think what harmful and damaging conversations have taken place at body check callbacks? While they are no longer allowed in professional film auditions as of 2020, I’m wondering how many other auditions are still requiring this practice.
This article was incredibly interesting to me as someone who isn’t a performer, and rarely considers these kinds of checks on performer’s appearance in the audition process. This article really emphasized to me the importance of respecting bodys in a field where a person’s body is a part of their work. The ability to use nudity as a storytelling element is not one that should be used all the time. It’s something that should be used with care and consciousness for the performers involved. A body check sounds like a demoralizing process to go through to secure a role. Nudity is a discussion that can happen with an actor throughout the creative process, and should not be based on the appearance of their naked body. Nudity in the arts can be powerful and profound when handled with grace and respect, but that grace and respect is still far from common in this industry.
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