Actor Ashley Judd said she was asked to “take her shirt off” during her first screen test.
The actor opened up about her experiences with abuse and gender bias in Hollywood during a panel discussion at the Sundance Film Festival, reported Entertainment Weekly.
The discussion was aimed at finding out practical solutions to spur change in the industry and beyond.
Judd, who has been outspoken about the Harvey Weinstein scandal, was joined by a group of diverse filmmakers and Hollywood power players.
“Well first of all, my first audition yielded a screen test and I was asked to take my shirt off.
“It was between another woman and me, and I said that isn’t about our acting, that’s about evaluating a pair of breasts. And the answer was not ‘no’ but ‘hell no,” she recalled at the panel, titled Univision Communications Behind the Camera: Where Diversity Begins.
Talking about her decision to discuss her history of sexual abuse, Judd said, “I understand it was never my shame and it was the perpetrator’s shamelessness which he put on me and I’ve given that shame back to the perpetrator where it belongs.
