Meet the Deuxmoi of Hollywood PA Horror Stories
“I was a casting PA on a large historical film that had hired a lot of first time extras… During the first few days of fittings, I often had to text or call the head of the extras casting with questions…I was just trying to be thorough and do my due diligence, but she didn’t see it that way. She told me point blank, ‘If all my PAs were like you, I’d shoot myself.’”
This is one of the many anecdotes shared by production assistants that have made their way to the anonymous Instagram account Production Assistant Stories, which started up in August. The social media space calls for production assistants to DM their experiences directly to the account as “some of the most abused and least respected people in the film industry.” The stories are harrowing, including people discussing instances of sexual harassment and misconduct, sleep deprivation, verbal abuse, and general mistreatment across film and television sets. In the same vein as Deuxmoi’s celebrity gossip account, the person behind the curtain wants to remain anonymous and they also want to keep as many stories as vague as possible in order to protect crew members from retaliation in an industry known for punishing and not always celebrating those who speak up about injustices.
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“People need to change the narrative and change their way of thinking when it comes to PAs in the film industry,” the account creator and manager tells Rolling Stone. “PAs are people who are professionals, who are skilled, and they should be treated as such. I think that there’s a lot of stories and a lot of abuse that PAs face behind the scenes and I think every story helps.”
The anonymous account creator is also a production assistant who has worked on a range of TV shows and movies, from network sitcoms to popular reality shows. They say they were inspired to make this account because of what they referred to as “hot labor summer” — when the Writers and Screen Actors Guilds were both striking at the same time, they say they felt an unprecedented energy and wanted to capitalize on that moment to rally people in an effort to shed light on the specific difficulties PAs face in the entertainment industry.
“With the strikes and with people starting to organize, it just put a lot of things into perspective,” they say. “And these stories aren’t really being told outside of our own personal bubbles.”
This crew member’s personal experiences also led them to wanting to create this Instagram account, giving a voice to other PAs who have lived through similar situations and can relate.
“[It] was one of the biggest sitcoms ever and I was very excited and grateful to be there. There’s also hundreds of people who would want your job and you just feel like you are incredibly, easily replaceable, so any sort of mistake feels amplified by your superiors. There’s also this Hollywood way of thinking when you’re dealing with major celebrities as talent on set, my superiors have this expectation of perfection,” they say.
“But there’s a level of respect that just isn’t given to production assistants, I think partly because they’re not unionized and partly because it’s an ‘entry-level job’ but the thing is, these are adults who worked really hard to be where they should be treated with a level of decency.”
They also noted that if PAs are not working on union sets there are even less standards and protections for them, which is common when you’re new to Hollywood and sometimes get your start on indie features, shorts, or unscripted projects that don’t typically hire unionized crew members. The PA says on these sets, production assistants are often asked to complete tasks that don’t fall in their wheelhouse and that they aren’t trained to do. For example, they can be asked to drive massive trucks filled with tons of expensive equipment.
Back in 2021 when the IATSE union voted in favor of authorizing a strike, a similar Instagram account was created and grew in popularity among crew members across Hollywood as well as general people who wanted to gain a behind the scenes insight into the hardships that crew members experienced. IATSE Stories, which is no longer active, has more than 150,000 followers and similarly shared anonymous accounts from crew members about their alleged abuses while veiling specific names of producers, networks, studios, and film and TV shows. The PA who made Production Assistant Stories this summer says they were inspired by the IATSE Stories account; it was part of their motivation to make an Instagram specifically targeted toward PAs because they saw its widespread impact on the internet.
“They had that huge account, and it was really cool to see people basically shedding light on all these abuses. Everyone, me included, submitted stories,” they say.
Sharing these stories is important because even if a lot of people in the industry know about it, it’s not in their face as much as it could be, and I think that being open will help try to change the narrative around PAs.
While the PA is managing all the submissions themselves and has taken the social media account on as a passion project, they say they keep the process simple: Go through the DMs, copy and paste the stories in their notes app, screenshot, and post them. They’re happy with the response so far, having earned about 3,000 followers. More important to them than the number of followers, though, is the fact that lots of PAs are writing in with their stories and wanting to open up about their experiences, breaking the culture of silence in Hollywood.
“In terms of the stories themselves, they can be horrifying and sad, but there are very rarely any stories that I’m surprised by because I’ve lived them myself and I have friends who’ve lived them,” they say. “Sharing these stories is important because even if a lot of people in the industry know about it, it’s not in their face as much as it could be, and I think that being open will help try to change the narrative around PAs.”
The PA says it’s disturbing to read the allegations that come in regarding sexual harassment and misconduct, as well as instances of alleged physical abuse. They also say a lot of the issues regarding PAs being mistreated are glossed over if they aren’t categorized as “the worst possible abuse.” Some people in the industry consider lack of sleep, verbal abuse, and being overworked as a rite of passage or general expectation when you’re building your career as a crew member, they say, so a lot of times those issues get minimized despite their actual significance.
“There’s a huge issue in the film industry in general with sleep deprivation and it’s amplified with PAs because PAs are the first to come to set and the last to leave since they’re setting up and breaking down,” they say. “A big thing that I’ll hear is, ‘It’s always been this way.’ I think that idea is funny because the film industry hasn’t even existed for that long, so the idea that something’s always been this way and can only be this one way is just false. It can be changed, it has already changed dramatically as societal norms continue to evolve.”
They also say they don’t understand when people come to the defense of the studios and networks who normalize this behavior across the industry. Just because some people had to endure these alleged abuses and mistreatments over the years, they say, that doesn’t mean other people should have to as well.
“I don’t know why people are fighting on behalf of bullies. You are fighting for people who are not looking out for you,” they say. “Especially people in the film industry. I think a lot of people feel like, ‘Oh, I had to go through that so why shouldn’t you?’ I’m sorry you had to go through that, that’s horrible. But why would you want somebody else to go through that?”
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