People Who Have Worked In Hollywood Reveal 30 Dark Secrets About The Entertainment Industry

I lived in LA in the 90s I worked on the fringes of the industry, but my company printed a lot of movie posters, so I saw a lot of folks when delivering proofs and such at different lots and offices.

But, where I ran into stuff was from when I had a second part-time job at Banana Republic, and the majority of the kids who worked there were all struggling actors, writers, etc. There were a lot of TV shows that were outfitted by BR, and people's party lives crossed over. The amount of times I would be at house parties in which there was a mountain of [illegal substances] on a coffee table was mind-boggling to me, and it was usually "a gift" that was given to one of those kids from someone in the industry (according to them).

Side note: I once helped Alan Rickman with finding some pants, and he was incredibly nice. I rang him up, wrapped and bagged his stuff, and said "Here are your pants, Mr. Rickman." He chuckled at me, took his bag, turned around to the other people in line behind him and proclaimed: "Yes, THESE are Alan Rickman's trousers!" I still find it hilarious to this day.

I used to seat audience for a late show with a live audience. I would have to seat people by attractiveness. That is, attractive people to the front closer to the cameras, and less attractive in the back where they can't be seen. This is done in all shows with an audience.

That parents are willing, and actively trying, to pimp out their kids for roles on the next hit children's show. Roles for the kids, not the parents, just to be clear.

EDIT: To clarify what I'm saying: That parents will offer their children up for sex for roles. They will even offer themselves up for sex for roles for their children. They want their children to become the next big thing. Am I saying that producers and such take advantage of situations like this? Only the Hollywood 1%. What is the Hollywood 1%? A term that is used to state that 1 out of every 100 people that work in Hollywood are f****d up enough to do stuff like this. The law will eventually catch up to most of them. But think, how long did it take for the Bill Cosby stuff to come out to where people believed? I would say 95% of the people who work in the industry will never be exposed to this kind of stuff, but it's there, and it's f****d.

A very well-known pop star's uncle offering information on said pop star for cash. Everything from baby pictures and videos, to her whereabouts. You name it. It all had a price.

This happens more than you realize.

Used to be an on-set grunt on Supernatural. One of the 2 main actors was kind of a giant douchebag on set - I'm not a fan of Jared Padalecki. I've got a few stories of that guy treating the grunts like s**t, but here's one nugget that always makes me smile:

On Jared Padalecki's IMDB it says "While filming season two, Jared Padalecki (Sam Winchester), broke his wrist after performing one of the stunts on the show." - The truth is they got into a bar fight the night before filming and Jared broke his wrist. That guy had a real chip on his shoulder and fancied himself some kind of fighter bro - The rumor is they started it and Jared ended up getting hurt. They had to write it into the show so if you're a fan - The reason Sam Winchester had a cast on in season 2 (Starting in episode 4) was because he got in a bar fight and lost.

**Edit:** Did some more googling and other sources say he broke his wrist from over-training. What a tool.

Relatively tame, but gross, worked on a show where the lead would deliberately eat huge amounts of raw garlic, onions, and canned tuna before kissing scenes as a f***ed up power play over the actresses who he was partnered with for the scene.

I've share this story here before under a throwaway, but I guess I can share it under another throwaway again. Throwaways because although I don't mind it as much now, it is not something I would admit to in real life, honestly. You would be surprised how many people in the industry use reddit :)

Anyways, a few years ago, I used to weigh about 340 lb. I am 6'4 (numbers slightly altered), so I guess I gave off what people in the film industry might call a "big guy persona" - you know, the guy who only exists to provide some form of backup or comedic relief.

The roles involved exactly what you might think it would be - eating, eating, and more eating. Pretty much every single scene I was involved in, I was essentially supposed to be the butt of fat jokes. A slobbering mess of a man. When you're on set in that sort of situation, what you realize is that the difference between your life and a movie isn't too big, maybe other than the fact that people express their opinions out loud in a movie, and in real life, they might keep those opinions to themselves or talk behind your back.

In all honestly, it was a struggle every day, because on screen, I would have this couldn't-care-less persona, but I felt the words and I knew the harsh reality. After going through this experience, I've realized that it is pretty much a fact that people will judge you on your appearance (maybe consciously or subconsciously, but they will judge you), even if well-meaning people have convinced you otherwise earlier in your life. Even if you're a great person on the inside, your apperance is you being presented to the world, and first impressions count. A lot. Any fame I had was not the result of my talent but rather my physique and how well I could handle being insulted. People weren't laughing with me - they were laughing at me. I was the source of the comedy. Hollywood (and I'd say the entire movie industry in general) is a very, very judgmental place where unless you conform to certain views or characteristics, you have no place or significance of existing in to people who are already there.

Ultimately though, the same thing worked as a sort of motivating factor. I knew that I couldn't go long like this, so I had to change. Started working out, went on a very drastic diet, and was down to 200 lb by the end of the next year. The absolute best thing about the change? Finally feeling wanted. Feeling that people actually like being near you and want to work with you.

I was 20 or 21 and about to board a plane to a film a low budget shoot in Romania. As I was getting into the van to the airport, a producer came up to me with a blank envelope.

"Hey, I need you to give this to the producer, Vlad, when you get there."

"What is it?"

"$25,000 in cash. Don't declare it at customs."

I was a kid, so I did it.

I worked on some film sets in the northeast when I was younger, but decided not to go into film for various reasons.

The most f****d up thing I've been a part of was filming at an abandoned mental hospital that was vacated in the 80s, which meant it was full of asbestos and lead paint dust. There were two respirator masks on the whole set and the rest of the people were expected to make due with a particle mask. No one wanted to be high maintenance (or if they did, they just quit the shoot) so we all just stupidly accepted the risk and spent a month being exposed to asbestos and extreme lead dust.

Edit- Yes it was Session 9.

Worked on a movie set many years ago.
Part of my job was to make sure the (very well known) female star didn't steal wardrobe. Apparently, she would demand certain brands of clothing and shoes for costume fittings and then sneak them out of her trailer.

About an hour after the fitting, I'm getting ready to leave and as I walk to my car I see her and her assistant come out of the trailer with 10 boxes of shoes. TEN! We're talking Gucci, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, Louboutin - easily $20,000 worth of shoes that she just decided to take home. Before I could say anything, she told me that the Director told her it was OK. I knew that was a lie but what could I do?

Also had a commercial director who would cut deals with wardrobe stylists to buy him EXPENSIVE clothes and then change the invoices to make it look like it was wardrobe for the ad. I watched the guy carry bag after bag of Gucci shoes and even a Hugo Boss suit out to his Range Rover. Unfortunately for the director, the client noticed it too and he was billed for the merchandise. Pretty sure the ad agency also stopped hiring him after that.

EDIT: Oh! There was also this casting session where a woman (recognizable character actor) aggressively propositioned the director. First, she changed clothes in front of the 6 people in the room instead of behind some screens. We're talking stripped down to nothing to put on something that she brought to look more business like for the role. It wasn't required but it was awesome. Then, in the middle of a line read she stopped and asked the director if he'd rather see her work in private. Awkward. The director stammered a bit trying to think of an elegant response and she got pissed, questioned his sexuality and stormed out. Somehow, she still got the job.

I might be a bit late for this but here goes. (I'm on mobile so there may be formatting issues)

I work as a lighting technician, and I'm still in the low budget world, so I have to deal with a lot of c**p and I could go on for ages about the borderline abusive and illegal stuff I have to deal with on a regular basis but I'll just go with my best story.

This is the incident that made me decide I was done with the worst of it. This is the story of the executive producer who got stabbed on set.

So I got asked to come out on the reshoots of a ultra-low budget horror feature. It was a minimum wage/illegal rate, but I hadn't worked in a long time so I went out for it. The bad signs quickly started to pile up. The executive producer was also the director was also the lead actress, and in my few interactions with her she flaunted her position and was generally a b***h. The Key Grip had already basically checked out. "It was a s**tshow then and it's a s**tshow now." I went to my standard procedure in these situations and tried to just do my job and stay out of the way as much as I could.

Then came day 2.

We were going up for some stabbing scene, lots of fake blood and whatever. The house was very cramped so I was out at our equipment staging area on the back porch. They go up for a take. Then comes the screaming. Not acting screaming, real, loud screams. "OH MY GOD HE STABBED ME! HE F*****G STABBED ME OH MY GOD!!"

At first I didn't think much of it. I thought it was just the actress being terrible, but, hey, she's running the show so she could do whatever she wanted. Then everyone around me started freaking out.

This idiot girl had decided that she didn't want to use a fake prop knife for the scene. Apparently it "wasn't real enough" for her. This is something that is film safety 101. You ALWAYS use a prop weapon and you let anyone on set who wants inspect the prop. I had just assumed that they were using one and the dozen or so people on set knew better, including my direct superiors in my department. This was literally Darwin Award levels of stupidity.

I didn't see the wound itself, but it wasn't life threatening. She was out of the hospital in a few hours, but she could have easily died, and it would have been completely because of her idiocy.

TL;DR: Selfish idiot producer gets stabbed and it's 100% her fault.

Honestly? Nothing to do with celebrities. The most f***ed up thing is watching a 22 year old PA climbing into a big white box truck at the end of a 14 hour shoot at 1 AM and driving back from the boonies after crushing a few beers and a couple bumps. I've heard of some bad accidents involving sleep-deprived grunts trying to break in.

Generally people just trying to get you to work for free, through manipulation and intimidation, and acting like they're doing you a favor for it. There's a dangerous combination of idealism and predators in Hollywood, and its everywhere, at every level in the business. Thank God for unions.

Since not a lot of people are naming names, I'll go ahead and do so. Adi Shankar. Sketchiest person I've met in this town. I know he's a hero on reddit, but he's the craziest person I've ever worked for. In my first few years in LA, I interned a lot, including at his company. I thought it was pretty cool to learn from the Producer of movies like The Grey and Dredd. But what I learned pretty early on is that “Producer” is a pretty flexible term in Hollywood. What his company does is gap financing. Let's say a movie is already packaged and ready to go, but they have 28 million of a 30 million dollar budget, they go to a company like Adi's. He gets a loan from the bank for $2m and slaps his name on as Executive Producer. No creativity, no involvement with the production. Perfectly fine business model. But the level of douchiness that came with this has been unmatched at any of my other jobs.

He would parade around town acting like he was the sole creative force behind The Grey and Killing Them Softly. As a specific example, he likes to tell people that it was his idea to shoot Dredd in 3D. He would often call interns into his office just to show them videos of some “s**t he he f****d” the night before. I was often tasked with searching IMDB for rising actresses. He would then call them in for a general meeting where he would talk about how he was going to make them into a star, while usually not so successfully trying to trick them into sleeping with him. A year of interning there and all I learned were what d***s he liked, and how to get women to sleep with him. Not a minute of actual industry work happened at that office.

Turns out the actual producers and directors of projects don't take to kindly to some guy parading around claiming responsibility for their movie. He was basically blacklisted from the industry, which is why he's making his bootleg youtube videos. His methods haven't changed at all. We all loved the Power Rangers short. What no one knows is that it was 100% paid for with the Director's own money. Over $100k. Adi didn't spend a dollar of his own money on this, or any of his other videos. He has the directors pay for them, do all the creative, then puts it up on his youtube page and essentially takes full credit for it. Interning for him was f****d up, cultish ego trip that has been unmatched at any of the places I've worked after, including large studios.

Worked for a major union, and while I don't have any specific stories, I can say that I am so glad to be out of that business.

The worst thing you can be in Hollywood is an actor. They're a dime a dozen and people will do the worst s**t to you as a matter of course.

Thinness and appearance are all that matter. I regularly saw women who seemed like they might just pass out in front of us and no one batted an eye. Even "down to earth" industry people obsess over their weight, their skin, even the "visual age" of their hands. And it spreads. Even people who aren't on camera or even involved in the industry have these weird plastic appearances.

A very nice older actress used to come by all the time, and she'd had so much work done. She moved like an ASIMO unit and couldn't open the door because the dermatologist injected so much saline into her fingers to give them a youthful plump that it was difficult for her to grip things.

The sets are unsafe. People get hurt a lot and there are constant OSHA and turn-around violations, but nobody changes anything because the crew won't report it.

The whole thing just stinks of desperation. All the players are either desperate to be stars, desperate to stay relevant, or desperate to be near their idols. Sociopaths thrive in this environment and people are treated like trash all over for nothing. And if you say anything, you're just weak, and you should toughen up.

Commercial shoot with bodybuilders. The producer asked the client on set if they wanted to be oil boys and lube up the bodybuilders. They gladly took up the offer and spent 30 minutes oiling up the bodybuilders, who had no choice but just to take it even though I could tell they weren't comfortable. At the time, everyone was laughing and joking around, including the bodybuilders, but looking back, it was pretty messed up to put them in that situation.

One time I had an audition and I had a zit on the side of my nose and the casting director just said "Come back when you get a bar of soap."

Other than that, stage moms.

EDIT : Just remembered another one. Filmed an episode of a show about a comedy sketch show that takes place at 30 Rockefeller Center. We were shooting outside on the street, and Alec Baldwin was screaming at tourists for taking photos and "ruining the show". We were filming outside at noon in one of the most touristy sections of the city. The word "Art" was mentioned in the diatribe. The eye contact among everyone said "Ewwwww."

Up until about 3 yrs. ago I was a struggling actor in L.A. I have so many stories, good and bad. I was working different jobs while going on auditions, for awhile I was a concierge at the BelAge Hotel a popular hotel on the Sunset strip where celebrities stay so I met and interacted with many stars. By far the most beautiful were Michele Pfeiffer and Halle Barry, both very nice and breathtakingly beautiful. Others not so much, Goldie Hawn is a wreck. One night this old guy starts talking to me and asks me if I'm an actress, I say yes and he says he thinks I have a great look and wants to be my manager. He then tells me who he is (I had no idea), he is Marty Ingels and says he's a famous actor (haha) and is married to Shirley Jones. He tells me he has started representing actors as a manager. So I go with it, he takes me out to dinner a week later at Spago, takes me shopping, tells me I need nice clothes for auditions. Takes me to his house and introduces me to Shirley Jones so I figure it's all ok if his wife is cool about it. Then it happens, one night we are in his car driving to a restaurant and he tells me that he's done me a lot of favors (he got me an agent, bought the clothes) so now I owe him something. He wants a BJ. I say no, he argues about it. I stick to my guns. No means no. He gives up,drives me back to my car and drops me off. I never hear from him again. What a sorry old man. And obviously Shirley knows whats going on, looking back I realize when meeting her she knew what it was all about.
Another story; I was working as a secretary (one of 3) for a semi famous producer in Bev. Hills. He would have tantrums like a 2 yr. old when he got stressed out, one day he couldnt find a script he was looking for in his office, he was screaming for someone to come help him look for it, I went in and he picked up his desk phone and threw it at me narrowly missing my head (glad I ducked) and it exploded on the wall behind me. I wasn't there long!

Not in Hollywood but work at a printing company. Printed pieces for large DVD displays. One of the displays was printed and ready to ship. $100,000s+ worth of stuff ready to go. Was all thrown in the trash because the sister of a huge star (was his manager) didn't like the way his hand looked.

I work in development. The thing that continually surprises me is that it is almost impossible to cast any person of colour as a lead unless it is directly and almost exclusively targeted towards a specific racial audience e.g. it's ok to cast a black man as the lead in a Tyler Perry movie, but not as the lead of a wide-release, all audience film. The rationale behind this I've heard repeated by many producers, sales agents etc. is that these movies "don't sell well." Essentially, they are saying that a lot of people are casual racists and making say...a romantic comedy with a black guy and a white woman will keep these people out of the theatre and tank the prospects for your movie. Although this is a harsh and unfortunately not particularly surprising truth, what's shocking to me is that EVERYONE accepts it. I've had producers claim that we can't cast an Asian man as a romantic lead because women "buy the stereotype" about [private parts] size and wouldn't find him attractive, while another script wouldn't cast a young black woman as a concert pianist because it "doesn't connect culturally." Movies and TV, like sports, are something that can truly bring people and the fact that people in the industry buy into this idea is pretty f*****g depressing.