Kim Wilde Auditions

A short film (about 5 minutes in length) by Cerith Wyn Evans from 1995. Wyn Evans found the footage in a bin in Soho and assembled it together into a showreel. It’s a record of screen tests carried out to select young male actors suitable to perform in Kim Wilde’s promotional video for Shame.

Two handsome men are asked to respond to the instructions of an off-screen director. They take up poses, follow the absent Kim with their eyes, peel off their shirts and walk the set in an uneasy cross between a masculine stride and a sexually provocative catwalk shimmy. The actors are obviously nervous, with trembling lips and contorted attempts to become desirable while also trying to maintain some degree of dignity.

Watching these performances is really embarrassing and disturbing. In opening up this intimate interaction to a wider audience, Wyn Evans identifies us, the viewer, and makes us consider our position as the voyeur.