Don’t know about the mermaid part, but this article from the London Times does go on to say that the actress needs to be able to swim. There is no mention of corsets, though that could also be a factor. The article also mentions that fake breasts don’t move the same as real breasts during action sequences:
Rest of article here:
Breast implants would be a glaring anachronism in a movie that’s supposed to be set in the 17th Century. It’s no more complicated than that.
How would you tell they were breast implants, though? A lot of them are really good.
I could have sworn I read something about corsets but I can’t find any mention of it on the net. I think they’re just going for a more accurate portrayal, as mentioned here. Which is odd, IMO, for this franchise, but could be fine.
The casting call included a mention of a “show and tell” designed to weed out anyone with implants. I imagine they have their ways.
I don’t know about that. They always look pretty obvious to me. They have an “inflated” look. No natural sag or droop. My guess is that if it’s eally that good of a job, then they should be good enough to fool a casting director too. If they’re not good enough to fool a casting director, then they don’t belong in a period piece.
Another thought is that an open call without that stipulation would probably draw a lot of aspiring starlets with really obvious boob jobs, and rather than having to deal with that, it may be easier to stipulate no boob jobs at all, and then even if you still get candidates with boob jobs, at least they’re more likely to look natural. My guess is that they want everything to look real, and saying they don’t want implants at all at least weeds out the ones you can spot a block away. In other words, “no implants” might be code for “no implants that read clearly on screen as implants.”
Thanks for the answers, this has been pretty enlightening. I’ve always wondered about how some of the entertainment business works
Just out of curiosity, if this “show and tell” is what I think it is, would it be legal (because I’m assuming it’s done fairly frequently, just not talked about) for a casting agent to list one stipulation of the hire as having to be checked out naked by him? This assuming it’s not a porno, obviously. I can imagine a guy simply telling potential actresses that the part MAY require nudity, so strip 'em off, and then afterwards the nudity somehow disappears from the script
Hell, if I had a screenwriter buddy, this is a scam I’d like to pull. “Put some nudity in the script, we can cut that out later, I just want potential actresses to strip down for “inspection” for me!” 
Yup. Tall women who are a size 4 or 6 and have a dancer body are quite natural.
The producer can tell when he requires the aspiring starlet to sleep with him…that’s the real reason.
The obvious-looking breast implants look obvious. I’m sure there are plenty of breasts that you think are natural that have actually had work done on them.
One hopes the actor calls his/her agent and asks WTF did you send me on that call. We had to travel a lot further than a few subway stops for my daughter to audition, so her manager was pretty careful about this.
First, I suspect if that happened at all it would happen at a callback. Second, most casting directors are women, so it probably wouldn’t be much of an issue. I’d think a bathing suit would provide plenty of evidence of implantage in any case. Not to mention that agents would stop sending actresses to any such clown, and the producers who hire him would not be very happy. So, nice fantasy, but that’s not the way things really work.
At least in New York.
And plenty of natural looking breasts that look too good to be natural? I remember going to a bra shop a few years ago wearing a tank top (no bra) and the bra fitter lady told me whatever I had on now was fine, and when I told her I wasn’t, she was astounded and thought they must be fake.
I used to work as a background extra. IME, there is always a “show and tell.”
I had long hair, always tied neatly back in a ponytail, and I also had a beard. If I untied my hair and let my beard grow, I could be a “mountain man,” or “saloon patron” or “prospector” in various period pieces (usually Westerns) filmed nearby. Anyway, I’d either see an ad for “long haired men with beards, between 21 and 65,” or I’d get a phone call from the extras casting agent who had cast me before. Either way, there was always a “show and tell” with a few oral questions from a casting agent, an application form, and photos. In other words, they wanted to meet and talk with me to make sure my hair and beard were long enough (or would be) by the time I showed up on set. It was definitely a “show and tell” session.
I was an extra in the (not very good) movie The Last Kiss, and the morning of the shoot they were looking for tall girls. They asked everyone over a certain height to stand up, then kept raising the minimum height until it was I think girls over 5’10". The chosen tall girls were to stand by actress Rachel Bilson in a crowd scene. The idea was that she’d be surrounded by taller girls, who’d then move away so Bilson would be revealed to the camera and the main character. I’m guessing the specific height requirement for these extra roles is for similar reasons. These women are apparently all supposed to be pretty close to the same size, and it may be that there’s a scene where one of the stars must blend in with them, hide behind them, or tower above them.
Huh, I hadn’t heard the title of this movie would be On Stranger Tides. That’s the title of a 1988 Tim Powers novel, one that bears some striking similarities to the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I’ve always wondered if this was coincidental or if the screenwriters drew inspiration from the novel. Wikipedia indicates that the new movie will indeed be loosely based on the novel, so someone affiliated with the movie series must have read it at some point. Of course, that might have been only after a friend said “Hey, that first movie reminded me of this Tim Powers novel…”
This makes me sad :(. I actually rather enjoyed the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and the sequels were at least barely tolerable ( high praise, I know 
). But I love that novel despite its flaws and the idea of Jerry Bruckheimer getting his hands on it and letting Johnny Depp ham it up really bums me out.
From the Wiki article it sounded like they’re not trying to do a real adaptation of the novel, but are using the title and the basic “Blackbeard is looking for the Fountain of Youth” idea. So it sounds like it will be different enough from the book that maybe you can just think of them as having little to do with each other. If this brings more attention to Tim Powers I’d consider that a good thing, although I admit the idea of On Stranger Tides being re-released with a “Now a major motion picture!” cover with a photo of Johnny Depp bothers me. (And I like Johnny Depp.)
Which was based on a not great but better Italian movie of the same name (in Italian).
When someone tells you your breasts look fine, it’s a compliment, not a remark upon your attire.
Sorry. That was piggish of me. I couldn’t resist. You and your supportive pectorals, I salute you. 
Don’t worry, I took it in the manner it was intended.