Actress and content creator, Jamie Lever, the daughter of actor Johnny Lever, revealed a traumatic incident from her initial days in showbiz when she was asked to strip during a video call as part of the audition process. She shared how the person on the other side of the call tried to lure her by saying the audition was for a "big international project".
Jamie told Zoom that the incident happened back when she did not have a manager and her personal contact got forwarded to casting agents so that they could reach out to her directly. It was then that she received a call from a man, who claimed that he was casting for an international project, and said that the audition would happen with the director over video call.
"They said we won’t be sharing a script because we want some improvisation in the audition," the agent told her. When she joined the link to the call, the supposed director had turned his video off, and on being questioned, said that since he was in transit, he could not turn his camera on.
The man then told her that the audition was not for a comic role, but a bold role in an international project, and that is when things took an ugly turn. "They said that you imagine there is a 50-year-old man in front of you and you are trying to woo this man, and eventually, there is an intimate scene," Jamie told Zoom, and added that she straightaway told the man that she was not comfortable and needed a script.
"They said, ‘There is no script, it is improvised so if you want to strip or if you want to say something or if you want to do something else, feel free to do that’," Jamie recalled.
As the actress refused to comply, the purported director tried to convince her saying it was a huge opportunity. "I said, ‘But sir, if you are expecting me to strip on this video call, I am not comfortable doing this and I wasn’t informed about it’. Then I said, ‘I don’t even feel comfortable talking to you right now’ and then I quickly switched off the video," Jamie shared.
She said that she later felt it could have also been a scam in which if she would have agreed to strip, they would record the video and blackmail her using it, and that they might also use her being Johnny Lever's daughter as leverage.
"I was petrified because something like that had never happened with me. Even thinking about it is scary,” she said.
On the work front, Jamie is a well-known face in stand-up comedy circles and she is also loved for her short comic videos on Instagram. She marked her Bollywood debut in 2015 with Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon, co-starring Kapil Sharma, and later went on to feature in films like Housefull 4, Bhoot Police, Yaatris and Crakk.
