Miami is obsessed with body image, and it's been a real pain in the assets for casting directors of Starz’s “Magic City."
The Miami Herald reports that finding local actresses and extras with natural breasts has been difficult for the show, which is set in 1959 before the era of augmentations and abnormally thin models.
“I’ve actually had better luck finding synchronized swimming groups than I did finding real boobs,” local extras casting director Bill Marinella told the Herald. “We did a lot of research and reached out to burlesque clubs and just finding people on the beach and literally walking up to them on the street and saying, ‘Hey, you look like you’re right out of The Great Gatsby.'"
(Read the Herald's full story here.)
Filmmakers have sought less perky breasts for the big screen before. While casting mermaids for 2011’s "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” director Jerry Bruckheimer only wanted women with natural breasts to try out, reports Entertainment Weekly.
“I don’t think they had breast augmentation in the 1700s,” Bruckheimer said. “So it’s natural for casting people to say, ‘We want real people.’”
Unfortunately, there are few of those left in Hollywood, and apparently even fewer in Miami. Last year, about 1.6 million people underwent surgical cosmetic procedures according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, spending $10.4 billion with breast enhancements taking the top spot for women. At 49 percent, the largest age group getting boob jobs are 19- to 34-year-olds, and South Atlantic states boast a whopping 18.8 percent of the nation's surgical providers.
While Miami statistics vary from one survey to another, the 305 was ranked 3rd in the nation for plastic surgery by TotalBeauty.com, anyone's cursory review of bodies on the beach would suggest "Magic City" employees aren't joking about their difficult quest for natural flesh.
South Beach clubs have even given away free boob jobs, as did Mokai in September with a flyer instructing women to "text 'BOOB' to 38714 for guest list and to be entered to win!"
The club's winner was never publicized, which might not surprise "Magic City" producers: perhaps there wasn't a woman left among the revelers that hadn't already purchased new boobs.
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