Actress Ruth Wilson reportedly left SHOWTIME drama “The Affair” after being consistently pressured to disrobe on screen and engage in a particularly “rapey” sex scene, a report published Wednesday detailed. In 2015, Wilson won a Golden Globe for her acting in the show.
“While Wilson was said to have understood that signing on to an adult drama at Showtime called ‘The Affair’ would likely involve some disrobing, she ultimately took issue with the frequency and nature of certain nude scenes,” The Hollywood Reporter outlined. “Sources, many of whom declined to speak on the record, say Wilson was often asked to be unclothed in scenes where there seemed to be no clear creative rationale for the nudity other than for it to be ‘titillating,’ as one person involved with the production puts it.”
Wilson, who has previously made gestures about the “toxic” environment at “The Affair,” is apparently barred from speaking about her exit from the show due to a nondisclosure agreement. “It isn’t about pay parity, and it wasn’t about other jobs, [but] I’m not really allowed to talk about it,” the actress told The New York Times last summer. “There is a much bigger story.”
“Why do you need to see me and not more of him?” Wilson reportedly asked about a male costar while on set, one source told The Hollywood Reporter.
Insiders claim Wilson felt pressure from “The Affair” showrunner Sarah Treem to perform nude and graphic sex scenes.
“There was a culture problem at the show from the very beginning and a tone-deafness from Sarah Treem about recognizing the position she was putting actors in,” a source “with firsthand knowledge of the production” told the outlet. “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.”
Actresses were reportedly told, “‘Everyone is waiting for you,’ or ‘You look beautiful,’ to ease any insecurities they may have had.”
“It’s things you would think would be coming out of a man’s mouth from the 1950s,” the source added. “The environment was very toxic.”
The report detailed an instance where Wilson was reportedly made uncomfortable by a “rapey” sex scene:
In one instance in the second season, Wilson declined to shoot an aggressive sex scene that involved her being pushed up against a tree at a yoga retreat by co-star Dominic West. “It was rapey,” says a source. “Ruth was very unamused by it.” Treem says that it was written to be a consensual sex scene but that Wilson didn’t agree with the character’s choice. Instead, a body double stepped in for part of it.
Treem, identifying as a “feminist,” denied that she ever pressured Wilson, or anyone else, into nudity.
“I would never say those things to an actor. That’s not who I am. I am not a manipulative person, and I’ve always been a feminist,” the showrunner said, adding that she “did everything I could think of to make [Wilson] feel comfortable with these scenes.”
“I have devoted my entire professional life to writing about and speaking to women’s issues, women’s causes, women’s empowerment and creating strong, complex roles for women in theater and in Hollywood, on- and offscreen,” Treem continued. “It’s what I think about, what I care about, it’s what drives my life and work. The reason I even created ‘The Affair’ was to illuminate how the female experience of moving through the world is so different from the male one, it’s like speaking a second language. The idea that I would ever cultivate an unsafe environment or harass a woman on one of my shows is utterly ridiculous and lacks a grounding in reality.”