Bit-part actress slings sueball at IMDb over age gripe An actress who claims work dried up after her age was revealed on movie compendium website IMDb is suing the Amazon-owned company. The identity of the minor TV star had remained anonymous until a lawsuit was filed last Friday revealing Huong Hoang from Texas was slinging a sueball at the site. The actress, whose stage name is …
This article will make her more bankable than any of the previous 10 years of her work.
Check back on her imdb pro next week when the hit-meter stats are updated and look at what a boost this article and others will have given her. Seeing as most producers use this imdb pseudo measurement as a yard-stick for bankability on obscure actors, this will definitely help her career.
"Given the amount of films she has appeared in since Y2K, I don't think the term "failure" applies."
Yes, such memorable appearances as "Girl In Bar" (The Communicator), "Woman" (Take Out), "Tough Asian" (Back on Topps), "Ghetto Girl Three" (Hoodrats 2: Hoodrat Warriors) and "Triage Nurse" (I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant) ... and a bunch of other extra parts.
She's definitely hit the big time ...
So "c-hri-s" what have you done with your life that's so amazingly stunning that you consider yourself in such a superior position you can criticise what others have done with theirs? Hmmm?
Almost every one starts at the bottom and if they work hard and make a few lucky breaks, they might get big in their chosen field, be that acting, music, sciences, humanitarian causes, etc. Some others work bloody hard and never get the breaks no matter how hard they try.
So if you ever bother trying to chase your dreams and fall flat on your face trying, can we all have a bloody good laugh at you too?
Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Cry and the world laughs at you"
I have some sympathy with the lady concerned. I went for a job interview yesterday, for which I am eminently qualified. I have the evidence to support all of the skills and results that I highlighted. I made a point of confirming that I am available at quite short notice and prepared to relocate at my own expense.
Whilst driving home, I received a call; they won't be taking me on. Their view was that I lived "too far away". Considering that they knew where I live before I went for the interview this seems a bit odd; and I would suggest that the real reason was that the resumé doesn't have my age, and they only realised that once I was sat in front of them.
It's crazy but people really do seem to believe that a person's skills are inversely proportional to the number of years experience. One day cornz 1, you will also find yourself in the same situation; you may not think that now, but trust me, it will happen. What will you do then?
Then they would have to come up with a better bogus reason not to hire you.
At least in the US it is illegal to ask where an applicant lives. Why does that matter in determining if you can perform the job - but could be used to determine if you live in the "wrong" part of the town.
They can ask if you can be on site within x minutes of notices or 24x7 - if the job requires it.
Time to sue.
@AC 16:26... It is NOT illegal for a prospective employer to ask your address. Before the days of cell phones and email, there were only two ways a prospective employer could contact you... by mail (requires your address, although you could use a P. O. Box or a Commercial Mail Receiving Agency), or by landline, which had an area code and prefix which would, in general terms, identify the area of town in which you lived, unless you used an answering service,
When I was doing hiring for a federal agency, if the application or resume (CV if you're on the other side of the pond) did not have an address, it was not even considered.
I would fully expect anyone who lived on the "wrong side of the tracks" to use a P. O. Box or CMRA, and to have a cell phone tied to a good neighborhood.
Coat please, the one with all the hijacked resumes in it. Hey, I've got to beat out the competition some way.
Actually, Yes.
In reports I read in other places, she used to play a lot of 20s and 30s characters and to be fair her photos don't make her look 40.
I bet now the age is listed, the agents don't even look at her profile (or at least weren't, as mentioned above I bet her phone is ringing off the hook now) because it'll be filtered at the search box.
Acting talent has little to do with getting decent work. I'm not saying this to be facetious, but nearly every drama school graduate (of which there are tens of thousands every year) is well within the skill range needed to deliver 99% of dialogue in any tv / film / play.
If she doesn't have connections in the industry, then she'll need star power to get cast in anything decent. And age has an enormous amount to do with it. Acting is probably the most 'agist' profession there is. (if you call it a profession).
Her chronological age, and her bad comic jokes "My brother is so gay that he...", and something possibly unlisted but which she-hopes-won't-be remembered in cliquish Hollywood probably ired her.
But, it's probably time that for some professions, there be two additional questions:
-- Age you THINK you appear or can pass off as
-- Age OTHERS think you appear to be
But, maybe this is just me, i cannot STAND to watch shows in which actors over their age try to pass themselves off as younger types of characters. Usually, I can spot it in the body language and if the camera reveals too much in the face. I get turned off and will quit watchnig. To me, some acting is about looks, looking the part, being recruited for it due to versatility, and getting out of the way for new replacements who *earn* their way there, not retain it due to connections.
Not that that is how she landed roles, but maybe she should diversify her acting portfolio or do smaller projects that gradually mature her persona on screen. Turning silver before the silver screen isn't bad. The bad part is being typecast for so long that roles are not even offered.
Besides, it doesn't take IMDB to out her age. Agents and industry players who schmooze and booze it up can and already DO do such outing. She should probably specialize in hiring or retaining someone who writes scripts around HER and a small cast, and puts them to digital camera, and "floats" them out there on YouTube and other outlets. It would keep her active, keep her in the minds of the right people, and work better than firing a broadside via lawsuit.
The lawsuit action i dare say probably has gotten her blacklisted by now. Lots of connections all over the place...
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Who could possibly forget her electrifying performance as 'Zombie Postwoman' in the '07 production of Z: A Zombie Musical? Or as 'Sandy' in last years Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver. A performance sure to be noticed by the Oscar nominations committee. Or whatever it's called.
For all you know, Richard 116 may be a Nobel prize winner who has appeared in major film roles and who is also intimate with the lady in question. He may not even have a computer in his bedroom. At least he doesn't post anonymously.
I can't help noticing a lot of thespian defensiveness in this forum. A group of people who choose to earn their living with skills that are, apparently, so commonplace that every vacancy is massively over-subscribed should, perhaps, learn to roll with the punches.
"He may not even have a computer in his bedroom. At least he doesn't post anonymously."
The computer-in-bedroom accusation was a bit of a low blow, but the comment was still entertaining. As for posting anonymously, I'm sure the debate is enriched substantially when pseudonyms are involved. Isn't that right, Mr Cant?
Richard 116 sounds like some kind of "future Shakespeare" adaptation. Maybe Ms Hoang and the commenter could be put together in some kind of Playmobil production if it doesn't make it to the West End, Broadway or Hollywood (or Blockbuster).
All the above characters are played by me. Anonymous Coward (all three of them), Mr Cant, The Comic Store Guy, Cornz 1, the 115 other Richards. Unfortunately since turning 40 the work has just dried up. It was all I could do to get this gig. Now I just sit in my bedroom, stroking my Nobel prize, slaging off actresses.
She might not even have a case...2006 & 2007 were her busiest years from what I can tell. In 2008-2010 it did slow down for her but certainly wasn't horrible. She has clearly picked back up in 2011. So if her case is that she has fewer roles just simply based on her age being posted I think will be an uphill battle in court. Considering she has never really been a top tier choice for TV or film it is reasonable assumption that when money is tighter (like it is now) someone in her position would receive fewer roles.
I will give her credit for trying to find a way to boost her career though,
Maybe I'm wrong but I wouldn't have thought that the movie business would use IMDB or Amazon as its first port of call when looking for an actress. It seems much more likely to me that word of mouth would have more effect, as in Directors who have used actresses or where other actors/actresses have made a suggestion.
Using IMDB/Amazon to find someone to play a part in a film sounds a bit like the LibDems referring to the good sense guide when choosing a policy.
Since the invention of the IMDB star meter, it is one of the most used indexes when producers are researching supporting cast members. (This does not include mainstream actors who are already household names ofcourse).
The IMDB is treated as an approximately reliable impartial reference that doesn't have the inherent bias that peoples agents, resumes, cvs and websites have. When you have a list of 20 applicants from the casting director the IMDB can be a good tool to narrow them down into 'recall' and 'bin' piles.
Or, if you are the casting director, the IMDB can be a good tool to narrow down a list of 100 applicants into a list of 'cast' and 'dont call us...' piles.
Everything on the IMDB has a big impact, age not the least.
"Many films are never listed on IMDB at all".
Yes, I have worked on several big budget Bollywood films that are never listed. The IMDB is skewed enormously in favor of US film and TV. There are many multi million dollar foreign productions that are routinely ignored, even though these films may have worldwide audiences in the millions.
"To list anything, an actor or director has to pay for IMDBPro".
Only one person has to be registered to list the entire cast and crew, so it's not as bad as you make out.
"That means directors of low budget movies are less likely to bother because they are already struggling financially."
Yes, but we are only talking about around $100 a year. Even on a low budget movie it is unlikely to break the bank. And as stated, only one person need register to cover the whole project, and all future projects. The biggest difficulty with getting an indie film listed is the burden of proof that it is an actual project and not just a youtube project - quite hard until the film is released.
"The whole thing is just a money-making racket."
Unfortunately yes.
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So she's complaining that she needs paying out because someone revealed how old she is? That rather implies she was not telling people ... which is possibly fraudulent. What woudl be more interesting is if we can find some place where she claimed to be younger and bring about a class action from all the people who bough the movie thinking they were watching a 25yrs old, and it turns out she's older than that,
In reallity, it doesn't matter, but the craziness of someone suing for publishing a true fact ... well, it could only happen in America,
It is usual for Actors to provide casting directors with an "age range" they think they can portray rather than their actual age - which gives them more chance of finding appropriate work. They might at least get a casting call so the can be seen in the flesh rather than just as a name and a photograph.
Shirley Henderson plays "Moaning Myrtle" in the Harry Potter films. For those who make their abode directly beneath a large deposit of granite in the middle of the rainforest Moaning Myrtle in the films is the ghost of a teenager and thus in most ways IS a teenager.
Shirley Henderson is 47 in November. Seems to imply that people knowing your real age doesn't seem to make a difference.
You have adults playing children in animated series. That particular character may as well have been CGI'd in, since the detail level of her ghost wasn't that great. A lot of 'teen' movies have actors in their twenties (some in their thirties) playing minors. If it's not makeup, it's the shot or cgi masking the age. The only film I can think of where acting was a factor is "Peggy Sue got married' with K. Turner.
and what they don't cover elective surgery might. That being said, the Potter films were of the sort where the director was more likely to look outside the normal boundaries for cast who could portray the role than your run-of-the-mill flick, which seems to be where Hoang was getting her work. Those sorts of films are exactly the ones where I WOULD expect an agent to apply an age filter from the nets in selection criteria.
So if that happens to be your real name you're screwed????
Used to know a drug addict called John Smith and most of the pharmnacies wouldn't fill his methadone prescription because it was "obviously a forgery". We may have been the only pharmacy that called the prescribing clinic to check, rather than the police.
would have posted a link to a story posted previously on The Register, with better background details. Rather than just rehashing a post from Reuters / AP / Fox / CNN, etc.
The Register search is not helping; but previously the story was that IMDB / Amazon used the lady's credit card details to append her IMDB Pro account information.
Which is of course not right.
Is the amount she's suing for realistic given the history of her acting career? Hmm.
Can she provide documented evidence that the number of casting calls she's had has decreased *significantly* since then? Probably not.
She may have some form of a case, but even if she does, I imagine it'll be settled out of court and for significantly less than a million dollar sum. It's unclear that anyone has done anything even slightly unlawful.
Of course, back when she arrived in Hollywood and hit her mid 20s, she displaced the actresses who had moved into their late 30s. That's the business. I could be struck by lightning, be imbued with thespian graces beyond measure and still not get cast as Hamlet, because I'm in my 50s.
I would not cast aspersions, but I would ask where was her law suit and complaints when she first appeared on imdb and producers could look her up, nod approvingly and put her 8 x 10 among the dozens that would be allowed to audition and not among the hundreds who would not.
I can understand her concern. That as a 30+ american of asian descent. There aren't going to be that many roles. Much as we'd like to think the world is post-racial and post-sexist it isnt. How many t.v and film roles have women in their post 30s. Most of the roles will just disappear to Helen Mirrian who is a bankable star. If your female and over 30, you're no longer hottie material and will invariable end up playing; a lawyer, a judge, a CSI agent, or single working mom. Its made worse if you're ethnic. Name the number of films with an asian female lead outside of some historical drama. We can all go round shouting don't blame the player, blame the game. But if you're only ever on the subs benched because of a casting agents pre-conception then all credit to her.
I don't know if this lady has a case in law, but:
(1) Your actual age DOES count in casting directors' assessment of you, and actresses in particular are rightly paranoid about hiding their actual ages. I know of an actress in her mid-thirties who looks like she is at most in her mid-twenties. She doesn't tell anyone her real age, not even her close friends. Why? She lost out on a part at the start of her career because she was 23, which the casting director deemed 'too old' to play 18. Needless to say, she wouldn't have been cast as a 23 year old because she looked far too young...
(2) There are very, very few parts in TV or film for non-name actresses over 40. As a result, many people in the industry seem to regard any actress over 40 as 'past it'; there is definitely a psychological barrier at that age. It seems entirely reasonable to assume that allowing casting directors to know an actress is over 40 would be detrimental to that actress's career, especially if her playing age was considerably younger, as she would not be seen for parts which she could realistically play.
(3) With regard to how many parts this lady has listed on IMDB each year reflecting the success of her career: films take time to make, so any credits in 2011 could reflect audition successes in 2010 or earlier; for each role she was cast in, she will have auditioned for dozens more; and if she is claiming that the revelation of her age has already damaged her career, she would know at least a year before it becomes obvious on IMDB. For instance, the number of auditions she gets called to may have drastically reduced. (Actors get called to auditions after the casting directors have seen their 'resumés', and compared them, almost inevitably, with IMDB.)
Some people have commented that $1 million is too much, but if her career has been cut short by, say, five years, that would be $200,000 a year. Quite a lot, but not impossible if she could have got a regular part in a TV series. If she looks 25 now, as some here have opined, then she could argue that her career has been cut short by 10 years, at which point $1 million looks quite reasonable.
If you are an actress, your real age is commercially sensitive information. As an industry resource IMDB should know this, even if some people who have commented on this story don't.
FYI: I work in the industry, albeit mainly in theatre rather than film, and hence understand something of the dark arts of casting. The casting director's job is demanding as bad casting can destroy a film / show. Perhaps this is why they are rather conservative about playing ages; not stating their real age is the only defence an actor has. The consequence is that all actors, male and female, are likely to lie about their age at some time or another, and up to now that has worked out fine. But, for instance, if IMDB had published her age, Gillian Anderson would probably not have been cast as Dana Sculley; she was 24 at the time, but she pretended to be older so she could be considered for the part. (Obviously, Sculley was older than 24, as she had gained a medical degree and a PhD before studying at Quantico.)
Good points, except that the "damages" under US law would require her to have actually lost that money. The burden of proof lies on her to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she would have actually made 200k each year. That is not going to happen. Punitive damages are possible, but would be at the whim of not only a jury, but the various appeals courts that the case would invariably be sent to. Since actors/actresses are not salaried and are not considered employees (some are exceptions, she is not.) it's difficult to prove that the damages were real. Even if this affected her future earnings, there is no way for her to have ensured that she would have continued to have the same or greater earnings.
Lawyers in the US have a comple set of algorithms and statistics that are used to give a relative value to every person in every situation, and a value of damages. It's grim and somewhat disgusting, but it's how the US system works. Now, if something happened to me (as a systems engineer with a specific salary and work history) that caused me to lose work, I could very easily sue and be awarded some damages, although not punitive unless it was negligence or malpractice.
The other concern is the location of the trial (if any), Many areas in the US do not award punitive damages for "minor" things. It's a jury of your peers, and sometimes your peers don't like making other people rich. You'll notice that civil litigation is more active in some areas than others.
It's actually an amazing life. First, no casting director is legally permitted to ask an actor's age. If they do, most actors give a range, and a wide one at that. Second, Junie should look into comedy and character roles. Not only are those the most fun, they also are the least constrained by age. I love doing drama but the industry sees me as comedic, and now, I'm always playing offbeat, quirky types--in other words, versions of myself. Character roles are about finding and creating a unique niche for yourself. And I don't mind running from zombies or playing zombies. Whatever role an actor plays becomes part of their repertoire, part of the story that makes him or her unique.
Some of us also have good genes. My mother and aunt look about 15-20 years younger than they really are. I avoid the sun like the plague, and so far, it's working, no visible lines or wrinkles.
Guess they should not post her height or sex or anything incase that goes against her - god forbid someone was looking for someone tall or male or ??
Some might argue that NOT posting her previous movies would be a good start.
Perhaps she just needs a better agent or new career rather than blaming Amazon / IMDB.
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