The Screen Actors Guild has issued landmarks guidelines around filming sex scenes and nudity. It comes after a number of actors have spoken out about filming uncomfortable nude scenes including Ruth Wilson and Emilia Clarke.
In a statement published today, the US actors union set out a common set of policies for intimacy co-ordinators. They include having pre-production meetings with producers, directors and writers to establish how much nudity to expect and what will be involved in the simulated sex scenes, and one-on-one meetings with actors about what they consent to.
‘These protocols and guidelines will help to normalise and encourage the use of intimacy coordinators in productions, therefore ensuring the safety and security of SAG-AFTRA members while they work,’ SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris said in a statement.
The policies also allow intimacy coordinators to review ‘modesty garments’ – used as physical barriers during sex simulation scenes – and how many people will be on the set during the production.
Guidelines such as these have been long overdue, with a number of actors opening up about how uncomfortable they can be to film in the last few months. Last year, Emilia Clarke said she found them ‘terrifying’ and was often cajoled into greater levels of nudity than she wanted.
‘I’ve had fights on set before where I’m like, “No, the sheet stays up,” and they’re like, “You don’t wanna disappoint your Game of Thrones fans”’ she told Dax Shepard on his podcast Armchair Expert.
Ruth Wilson, too, was reportedly extremely upset by scenes she filmed for The Affair with Hollywood Reporter speaking to a number of people who worked on the show. ‘There was a culture problem at the show from the very beginning and a tone-deafness from Sarah Treem [showrunner] about recognising the position she was putting actors in,’ one source told the publication. ‘Over and over again, I witnessed Sarah Treem try to cajole actors to get naked even if they were uncomfortable or not contractually obligated to.’
Treem denied the allegations and said she frequently cut or adapted nude scenes at Wilson’s request. In the UK, guidelines were issued back in November by Directors UK along similar lines, with 96 policies created to eradicate ‘grey areas’ that left actors vulnerable to exploitation on set.
Hopefully, with the US following suit, this will become standard practice across the industry. Although, it’s worth noting that there are no enforcement penalties for deviations from the guidelines.
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