The Stage

Rigg attacks ‘brutal’ film and TV audition process

Published Tuesday 14 February 2006 at 12:00 by Liz Thomas

Actress Diana Rigg has hit out at the modern auditioning process for television and film, branding it “brutal” and claiming that young talent is not treated with enough respect.

The star, who first made her name with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the sixties and has enjoyed a career spanning four decades, said that there was a generational difference in how aspiring performers were treated.

She explained: “They are shoved and pulled around the place. When they audition for films or television they are videoed under the most brutal circumstances. They are ushered into a room with minimal lighting and a camera. There is probably a secretary sitting beside the camera inexpertly reading the lines to you. And you are supposed to give a performance. I defy anybody to give a performance [under those conditions].”

Rigg, who became an icon following her role as Emma Peel in The Avengers, was making the comments on Radio 4’s popular Woman’s Hour programme.

A spokesman for Equity said: “The overall treatment of artists is a real concern, and something that Equity has discussed with broadcasters and producers in order to seek improvements in working conditions and facilities and to relieve pressure on performers.”

Having enjoyed critical acclaim for her performance as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and more recently as Mrs Venables in Michael Grandage’s revival of Suddenly Last Summer, Rigg is now back on stage in the title role of Joanna Murray-Smith’s play Honour at the Wyndham’s Theatre alongside Martin Jarvis. The play follows a woman whose 32-year marriage finishes abruptly when he reveals he has fallen for another woman.