"They just wanted to know if I would do full frontal nudity, yes or no?"
Here's how actress Emily Meade was asked to do nudity for a show ... #tribeca2022
Here's how actress Emily Meade was asked to do nudity for a show ... #tribeca2022
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Throughout my whole career, in the beginning of my career, it would always be nudity, willing to do nudity, and it wouldn't even be listed or clear what that nudity was.
00:12There was a show that was like a pretty good opportunity that I was, I didn't get, I wasn't off for the part, but it was like, you know, the audition process can be so varied, and like, I had made it very far, the conversation was like as if it was my part pretty much, except for they just wanted to know if I would do full frontal nudity.
00:30Yes or no? And I said, which is always my answer, I was like, well, I would need to have a conversation, like, in what capacity, what does that mean? Especially with a, it was for sex scenes, I was like, especially for a sex scene, like, in what context is that going to be?
00:45So I told them, this was like through the casting director, maybe producers, and through my team, and I said, like, I would need to have a conversation with the director.
00:54And their response was, the director says, it's your part, but they need a yes or no, and then they said, and I won't name names, but there was, the actor I'd do the sex scenes with was like an older, very beloved actor, and they're like, well, he says he's down, and I'm like, oh, oh, is he?
01:10Is this 60-year-old, probably Oscar-nominated or won actor willing to show his penis? I think that's different for him than it is for me.
01:21And so it was kind of like, well, are you up for the challenge or not? And so I wound up just saying no, even though there's a version where I could have potentially done that if I thought it was creatively sensible.
01:32So I said no, and I did not get the part. They gave it to somebody else. It wasn't even that I said no at first. Like, all it would have taken was one conversation.
01:41But the power play at hand of like, nope, it has to be this, or nothing, was sad.
02:02Throughout my whole career, the beginning of my career, it would always be nudity, willing to do nudity, and it wouldn't even be listed or clear what that nudity was.
02:10I had auditions where they said they would ask me to show my breasts. Even the movie, the first movie I did with the sex scene, they had me, I remember the director having me do like a full-body turn and like bend over, like very bizarre things that I think even at the time I was like, felt proud of or something bizarre.
02:24But my only choice, because there was no nuanced conversation in my career, was just to say no or yes.
02:33So there was times I said a blanket yes, and then there would be very clearly unnecessary nudity infused into scenes, because it's, especially with cable, it's like people are expecting that.
02:43And then the other option was saying no, and missing auditions, opportunities, because there was no room for an actual conversation.
02:52So yeah, that's still a thing. I still get scripts that say nudity required, and I'm like, you're saying that to me.
02:59But yeah, it's still, that needs to be fixed next.