Girl 6
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Girl 6 is a 1996 American comedy-drama film by director Spike Lee about a phone sex operator. Theresa Randle played the title character, and playwright Suzan-Lori Parks wrote the screenplay. The soundtrack is composed entirely of songs written by Prince. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Directors Quentin Tarantino and Ron Silver make cameo appearances as film directors at a pair of interesting auditions. It is the first film directed by Lee in which he did not write the screenplay.
Plot
Judy is at an audition with Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino reveals that the film Judy is auditioning for is "the greatest romantic, African-American film ever made. Directed by me, of course" and is requested to remove her blouse so "Q.T." and his assistant can see her breasts. She reluctantly complies, but walks out of the audition.
Her agent is furious. Having worked hard to get Judy her audition with such a prestigious director, he quickly and angrily drops her from his roster of clients. Her melodramatic acting coach is also extremely displeased. When Judy tells her why she did not go through with the audition, the acting coach still does not see any reason why Judy should have walked out. This, topped with the fact that Judy has not paid her rent in a very long while, forces her to drop Judy from her roster of clients as well.
Now unable to secure acting work, Judy must find a way to make ends meet. She tries a number of jobs: passing out fliers, waiting tables at a club, and working as an extra on a movie set. She checks the circulars for wanted ads, and seeing "friendly phone line", as well as, "mo money, mo money, mo money". She circles them both.
At what turns out to be a phone sex office, Judy meets her new boss, Lil, who seems to be an assertive but friendly woman. The two click and the audition goes over just fine. Judy attends another interview, at a strip club/phone sex line with a relaxed boss, that would have fewer restrictions on her, but required she have her own private telephone line. She decides to stick to her original application with Lil.
Throughout the film, the phone sex line, having been secured at Lil's company, begins to take its mental toll on Judy, the newly christened Girl 6. She trusts her clients too much at times, and even agrees to meet one of her callers at one point, but he never shows, leaving her on a bench alone. It is visible to everybody, especially Lil and her neighbor and confidant Jimmy, that Judy is having a breakdown. She experiences a dark sequence in which she enters a snuff fantasy with a scary caller, who frighteningly seems to know where she lives. She decides that it is time to leave the phone sex career behind and move to Los Angeles for her acting career.
Judy attends another audition which parallels her experience with Tarantino. She again walks out. However, this time, still as "Girl 6", Judy has reclaimed her dignity.
