R. Richard
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Sexually Explicit Casting Contract for HBO's ‘Westworld’ Extras Has SAG-AFTRA Concerned
Fully-nude bareback riding and "genital-to-genital touching" are among the acts that background performers on the show may be tasked with at a Wednesday shoot.
Fully-nude bareback riding and "genital-to-genital touching" are among the acts that background performers on the show may be tasked with at a Wednesday shoot.
Background actors – extras – for HBO’s Westworld were being required Tuesday to sign a nudity and sex consent form that reads like the Kama Sutra and that has SAG-AFTRA officials worried that performers won’t realize that if they get cold feet on set they have the right to withdraw.
Indeed, cold feet may be the least of a performer’s worries.
The explicit consent form itself wouldn’t pass standards reviews at a broadcast network as it recites that the performer “may be required to perform genital-to-genital touching, simulate oral sex with hand-to-genital touching, contort to form a table-like shape while being fully nude, pose on all fours while others who are fully nude ride on your back, [and] ride on someone's back while you are both fully nude.”
Less strenuously, others might simply “have [their] genitals painted.”
Like all lists drafted by a lawyer, this one includes a catch-all phrase at the end, indicating that the actor may also be pressed into service to perform “other assorted acts the project may require.” The imagination wanders at that phrase, but an omission from the form suggests that whips and chains may be off the table: the union contract requires advance notice of “rough or dangerous” work, and no such warning appears on the form.
Still, if any of those “assorted acts” verge on stunt work – as seems within the realm of possibility – the union contract may entitle the actor to be upgraded to principal performer, which brings with it residuals and a boost in pay.
The union agreement also requires additional payment when a background performer is asked to bring specified wardrobe. However, no additional payment is required when the performer is told to bring no clothing whatsoever.
Read More Watch the Teaser Trailer for HBO's Highly Anticipated 'Westworld'
The 2016 Westworld, described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin,” is inspired by the eponymous 1973 Michael Crichton film that starred Yul Brynner and is produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, Jerry Weintraub Productions and Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films in association with Warner Bros. Television. The star-studded cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright.
A SAG-AFTRA member alert advises background performers that they have the right to withdraw consent at any time except as to scenes already shot, and that the set must be closed and still photography prohibited without the actor’s consent. The shoot takes place Wednesday, and a SAG-AFTRA representative will be at or near the set. The guild only tends to send member alerts when it is concerned.
Those protections only apply to union extras who are the first 19 on a television show. They’re usually referred to as “covered background performers,” though in this case it seems that they’ll be covered by almost nothing except the union agreement.
The consent form is on Central Casting letterhead and includes a logo that indicates the company was established in 1925, about a decade before SAG itself. The form is no doubt of more recent vintage and would not have been necessary in a pre-union era when movie companies were free to demand table-like nude contortions with abandon.
But today, the union agreement requires that producers obtain the performer’s advance written consent to nudity and sex acts, so the attorney who dutifully drafted the unusual form was apparently simply following the rules. The result, more risque than the usual boilerplate waivers, was probably not just another day at the office for its creator.
Fully-nude bareback riding and "genital-to-genital touching" are among the acts that background performers on the show may be tasked with at a Wednesday shoot.
Fully-nude bareback riding and "genital-to-genital touching" are among the acts that background performers on the show may be tasked with at a Wednesday shoot.
Background actors – extras – for HBO’s Westworld were being required Tuesday to sign a nudity and sex consent form that reads like the Kama Sutra and that has SAG-AFTRA officials worried that performers won’t realize that if they get cold feet on set they have the right to withdraw.
Indeed, cold feet may be the least of a performer’s worries.
The explicit consent form itself wouldn’t pass standards reviews at a broadcast network as it recites that the performer “may be required to perform genital-to-genital touching, simulate oral sex with hand-to-genital touching, contort to form a table-like shape while being fully nude, pose on all fours while others who are fully nude ride on your back, [and] ride on someone's back while you are both fully nude.”
Less strenuously, others might simply “have [their] genitals painted.”
Like all lists drafted by a lawyer, this one includes a catch-all phrase at the end, indicating that the actor may also be pressed into service to perform “other assorted acts the project may require.” The imagination wanders at that phrase, but an omission from the form suggests that whips and chains may be off the table: the union contract requires advance notice of “rough or dangerous” work, and no such warning appears on the form.
Still, if any of those “assorted acts” verge on stunt work – as seems within the realm of possibility – the union contract may entitle the actor to be upgraded to principal performer, which brings with it residuals and a boost in pay.
The union agreement also requires additional payment when a background performer is asked to bring specified wardrobe. However, no additional payment is required when the performer is told to bring no clothing whatsoever.
Read More Watch the Teaser Trailer for HBO's Highly Anticipated 'Westworld'
The 2016 Westworld, described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin,” is inspired by the eponymous 1973 Michael Crichton film that starred Yul Brynner and is produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, Jerry Weintraub Productions and Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films in association with Warner Bros. Television. The star-studded cast includes Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton and Jeffrey Wright.
A SAG-AFTRA member alert advises background performers that they have the right to withdraw consent at any time except as to scenes already shot, and that the set must be closed and still photography prohibited without the actor’s consent. The shoot takes place Wednesday, and a SAG-AFTRA representative will be at or near the set. The guild only tends to send member alerts when it is concerned.
Those protections only apply to union extras who are the first 19 on a television show. They’re usually referred to as “covered background performers,” though in this case it seems that they’ll be covered by almost nothing except the union agreement.
The consent form is on Central Casting letterhead and includes a logo that indicates the company was established in 1925, about a decade before SAG itself. The form is no doubt of more recent vintage and would not have been necessary in a pre-union era when movie companies were free to demand table-like nude contortions with abandon.
But today, the union agreement requires that producers obtain the performer’s advance written consent to nudity and sex acts, so the attorney who dutifully drafted the unusual form was apparently simply following the rules. The result, more risque than the usual boilerplate waivers, was probably not just another day at the office for its creator.
