NEW YORK • A young actress named Pearl arrives at an apartment in Brooklyn to meet her talent agent for a screen test. But there has been a change in plans, the agent tells her: To make the footage really pop, Pearl will strip nude and have sex with him on camera.
That is the driving plot line of Tape, a movie set to open soon in online screenings, with a villain whose words and actions might seem too brazen to be real. "I need to know, as a performer, you have the capacity to do this," he tells the reluctant Pearl, adding: "You're in control of all of this."
But the film is based on an actress' description of an encounter with a real agent and, off screen, recent suits filed by models describe similar behaviour by the same man, a little-known player in the entertainment industry's backwaters.
He is 41, lives in Brooklyn, and he is, as they say, having a moment.
His name is Brhonson Lexier St Surin and, after at least 10 years of dwelling on the fringes of the film and modelling industries, he finds himself in separate simultaneous spotlights - a film that draws attention to two lawsuits that in turn seem to track the plot of the movie.
The accusations are also a reminder that young women with ambition in the entertainment industry are far more likely to encounter a little-known agent who meets clients at a Starbucks than a cigar-chomping mogul who can make or break Hollywood careers.
And these incidents were not from a bygone era - the women said their encounters with St Surin took place as recently as 2017.
"It is the culture that we as women live in," Ms Deborah Kampmeier, the director of Tape, said in a recent interview. "It's right now. It's not back then."
St Surin, leaving a court hearing in Brooklyn on March 3, declined to discuss the case, saying: "I can't comment on the allegations."
Tape is based on the account of Ms Annarosa Mudd, who works with Ms Kampmeier and helped turn her story into the film. She also joined the cast - playing a former victim-turned-avenger who is stalking the agent.
Ms Mudd, 35, said in an interview that she met St Surin in 2010 through Casting Networks, a site for actors seeking exposure.
She was invited to audition for a reality show about young actors and met St Surin at a rehearsal space in Manhattan. "He seemed like the people you meet when you do that," she said. "He knew how to create a dialogue that created support and comfort."
She was told she was not selected for the show, and the next day, she received an e-mail from St Surin: "Your potential was impeded by your fear, nervousness and lack of preparation," he wrote, before offering to place her in his "protege programme". "As a protege you will have a certain set of responsibilities to me as your patron," he wrote, according to the e-mails provided by Ms Mudd. He offered to help her "expression and body articulation" in a screen test that would include "a love scene and a fight scene".
She agreed. The two met at an apartment in Brooklyn in March 2010, where they acted from a script about a husband and wife facing hard times. The scene included a kiss that was "like acting", Ms Mudd said, but then St Surin told her she had to appear nude in another scene. Then came another twist: "At some point it was revealed that we were going to have actual sex on camera," she said.
She objected and stalled for time, and St Surin - who had already disrobed - matter of factly stated his case, over some hours, for shooting the scene. In the film, as in Ms Mudd's account of the actual incident, the actress agreed. St Surin asked Ms Mudd to state, on camera, that she consented to the scene and that she was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, she said.
Pearl rationalises that a shot at a career in film is worth an uncomfortable act. Watching that scene being filmed and recalling her own experience, Ms Mudd said: "I saw someone just dealing with a problem, and I stopped feeling like an idiot." Then, St Surin took her to dinner, Ms Mudd said. He gave her a contract that she reviewed and refused to sign. "I would hate to tell anyone how I got that contract," she wrote St Surin in an e-mail days later. "It seemed like such a cliche."
Only after the filming of Tape was completed did Ms Mudd learn of two lawsuits naming St Surin.
Ms Mudd asked St Surin in her parting e-mails to destroy any footage out of "decency". St Surin seemed to take offence, saying "as if I am a child that needs to be lectured on integrity and virtue".
Ms Mudd said she hopes Tape helps women like the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits. "It's too big of an issue to hide from," she said. "I really want to be of service to people who are holding so much shame."
NYTIMES
