기획사 중심 연예산업의 젠더/섹슈얼리티 정치학

Abstract

The existence of actors and actresses has been changed as an ‘imagecommodity’ after huge success of ‘Hallyu(Korean Wave)’ in the beginning of2000s. The importance of visual appeal of aspiring male actors have grown,reflecting the current situation of the entertainment industry which sees highestprofits from actors being cast for advertisements and title roles in Hallyu TVdramas. However, unlike actresses whose ‘picture perfect looks’ are mandatoryand are the most significant factor, a male actor with ‘amazing actingperformance image’ is the more critical factor for a movie to become a boxoffice hit. Thus, the ‘image para-market’ of male actors has a larger scale thanthat of female actors. Opportunities to audition with the production companies without goingthrough management companies have become slimmer in the current system,and ‘tie-in’ casting of rookie actors with star actors have become common. Thatis why ‘meetings’ between producers and agencies are more prevalent thanface-to-face auditions between producers and aspiring actors. New actingentertainers are vulnerable to the demands of agencies as casting relies heavilyon these ‘meetings’, thus resulting in a vertical relationship. However, agenciesrefer to this relationship as a ‘partnership’, as their efforts involve gettingrookie actors casted with the agency’s star acting entertainers – which by nomeans is an easy effort. This encouraged rookie actors to position themselves as image commodities and develop entrepreneurial identities so that the scale ofthe entertainment industry itself can be expanded. As a result, the need tostrategically approach production companies rose. And when such situation iscombined with the position of actresses who is pressured to successfullyestablish themselves as an ‘image commodity’ before reaching 30, it isinevitable for their status in the relationship with agencies to be relativelyvulnerable.