Rachel Bloom Calls Out Hollywood Sexism Through Casting Notices

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend creator and star Rachel Bloom called out Hollywood's sexist casting breakdowns for female roles in a pair of Instagram posts Wednesday. "I'm still on the email list for casting notices from Backstage. Here's a little taste of what it's like to be an actress searching for your next job," she wrote in the first. The accompanying screencap from the casting website shows three casting
breakdowns for female roles featuring phrases like "pretty girl" and "sexy clothing." Two are seeking ladies for their male lead, one a "petite or thin" model, another "a conservative country girl in a very pretty dress that flirts up a storm."



I'm still on the email list for casting notices from Backstage. Here's a little taste of what it's like to be an actress searching for your next job.
A photo posted by Rachel Bloom (@racheldoesstuff) on Aug 10, 2016 at 5:40am PDT

To show a little contrast, Bloom, 29, then wrote a casting breakdown for the male characters on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, written from the perspective of the male gaze. She focused on the looks of the three main male characters.




For Josh Chan (played on the show by Vincent Rodriguez III), Bloom's posting reads, "Smoking hot. He's a 10 and knows it. Think Tom Cruise, Taye Diggs, Hercules from the Disney animated movie and the painting 'Water Lilies' by Claude Monet."


Bloom has been vocal before on societal issues, calling out a fashion blog that criticized her outfit in a post earlier this year. "Whenever a celebrity is at an event or on TV, chances are, they have been dressed, styled and made up by EXPERTS. Yet, the headline is always, 'Jennifer Lawrence rocks Dior,' as if the decisions of how to look rested solely on the celebrity's shoulders," she wrote. "It's all an illusion. A super fun illusion that elevates style and beauty to an artistic level, but an illusion at that. If celebrities truly dressed/made up themselves, I feel like very few would be on a best dressed list."

On Wednesday, PEOPLE caught up with the actress at the summer TCA press tour in Los Angeles where she expanded on her earlier message.

"Here's the thing," she told reporters. "Yes, it's the male gaze, but it's also just lazy writing. Especially when you're an actress without representation, which I was, and you're looking on Backstage, and you're looking on Actors Access. You're looking on Casting Breakdowns. And you're trying for anything. It's just novice writers, if they're male, the first thing to go is kind of fleshed out female characters. And that's just a fact."

"What's hard is you are so being judged aesthetically – I don't know if this is just me or as a woman – I have never wanted to watch a show or movie or a play based on if I find the people hot," she went on. "So I've never really understood that."

Bloom went on to argue that it's "offensive as a woman, but it's also just offensive as an actor and as a person."

"Like, if you love the characters, especially something, an original piece, you love the characters, you want to treat them with respect and love," she explained. "And if you're only seeing someone for the way they look, then either that's what they are, and they don't matter in the story which is a choice, or you haven't given that character the proper thought and love."