"'No other occupation in the world that so closely resembled enslavement': the actress as exploited labourer in two historical case studies"

This paper takes it titular quote from frank analysis by Louise Brooks regarding the indentured nature of film stardom for women- part of a bleak reality Brooks outlined in memoir, sharing insider tales of studios that were little more than brothels in disguise and of film actresses owned by organized crime organizations. Insightful work on the unfree and indentured status of performing women has also been undertaken by de Beauvoir, Irigaray, and other theorists of women in history and culture.

This paper is part of a larger dissertative project that employs cultural and labour studies to situate the actress as historically exploited labourer across time periods, cultures, and performance mediums. It continues this work by tracing back in history to a relatively unstudied case of actresses in serf theatre of eighteenth century Russia. Following important work begun by Catherine Schuler, it offers historical analysis of realities for actresses in serf theatre not as an isolated case in theatrical or Russian history, but instead as a progenitor to the realities for women in modern film industries. Taken together, the two case studies draw a bright line from the kind of indentured actress sexual servitude and concubinage of earlier centuries all the way to the actress in film. They demonstrate that claims of feminist theorists and film critics to the enslaved nature of film actresses are not nearly actually hyperbolic or exaggerated, but are rather part of a continuation of the status of performing woman as owned woman throughout history.