All language subtitles for Storyville.S2023E05.Sex.on.Screen.1080p.WEB-DL.H264.AAC-BRUH

This programme contains explicit
sexual scenes, very strong language,

some violent scenes
and scenes of sexual violence

When I first signed with an agent,

they said, "Oh, yeah,
you're going to have to get naked."

And everybody knows that
winning the Oscar

represents that you're not going to
get naked any more.

You're out there while the men are
on the sides wearing parkas,

you're just standing
there with no shirt on.

Everybody's standing staring at you.

A lot of the nudity that was asked
of me was not in the contract.

I thought at the time,
this is what paying your dues is.

I was afraid if I said no, that it
would make me too vulnerable.

For some reason, saying no
would make me more vulnerable

than being naked.

Did I have to be topless?

Probably not.

Already, as an artist, as an actor,

my body no longer belongs to me.

You were giving over your likeness
to a character,

and then that character becomes
something that belongs to the world.

And that's crazy.

This idea of, "Oh, I'm less of
a true actor if I do nudity,"

as if it's this negative thing.

But who decided that?

Who?

Zoom in if you can.

I wanted to be naked

so there's a sense of normalcy
about what our bodies represent.

Not just for trans people,
but period.

All these movies
that I watched growing up

chipped away at my sense
of who I was,

how to know who I was,
how to know what I wanted.

How do we find our desire when we're
so used to being looked at?

Interior bedroom night.

This is a closed set.

So if you're not in this scene
or working this scene,

please exit the stage.

What we see over and over again

is women have to fight for ownership
of their own body.

Yeah, here we go.

Scene 20, take 5.

Take your robes off.

Action.

Everybody learns how to behave
in sex and other things...

..from the movies.

Our notions of ourselves,

our notions of beauty,
our notions of romance,

what sex is allowed to be,
and who it's allowed to be with.

How to kiss, how to have sex.

How to be tender, how to be violent.

I mean, there are so many things
we learn from movies,

particularly when we're younger.

It's hard to talk about sex,

but here we have all of these
examples of movies

and television
and now the internet to show us

what we are thinking about our
relation to sex through media.

Sex education.

Don't have sex,

because you will get
pregnant and die.

That's it, then, for the penis.

Let's move on to the...

..the female privates.

We are sex ed.

The TV industry and the film
industry. We are sex ed.

When I didn't think
I was going to make it

as a film-maker or as a director,

I really wanted to do sex education
curriculums in high schools

because I just find so many things,
like, so shocking

about what women and girls
aren't ever told about sex.

Probably why I'm really fascinated
as a director

with what happens
behind closed doors.

I was raised so conservative
and so Christian

that I remember watching
Ace Ventura,

and it was the first
time I realised that sex

wasn't just the penis going
into the vagina,

because the bed
was shaking back and forth,

realising that there was like an
actual movement that happened.

For me, the sex scene that sticks
out is Love Jones.

That was like one moment
within the scene where Larenz

actually kissed her nipple,

and I was like, "Whoa!"

Like, "They're allowed to put
this in movies?!"

Like, this is crazy!

Oh, this is what sex looks like.

This is how I'm supposed
to look as a woman.

When I was a teenager,

I remember watching
Fast Times at Ridgemont High

and there was Phoebe Cates...

Hi, Brad.

..who was the object of desire,

and so wanted and so unattainable,

and I remember thinking, like,
I really want to be her.

I desperately wanted
to be the object.

There's a long tradition
in American movies of showgirls -

of literally showing girls.

Identical looking women
opening their legs in unison.

Going back to the earliest musicals.

The idealised and commodified
sexuality of women,

it's as old an invention as film.

Eadweard Muybridge was a
photographer who would give lectures

and he would show very, very short
sequences of motion.

When he got to the women,
he fundamentally didn't know

what purposeful activity
to give them to do.

And so he had them flirt fans
or walk up some stairs

or walk down some stairs.

One woman is gazing longingly
at another woman.

So, the men act...

..and the women are always
aware of being looked at.

Jane, 30s, beautiful, but pissed.

Jane, an attractive and fit
nurse in her late 30s.

Jane, 40s, looks 35.

Pretty. Hispanic.
Smart and beautiful.

"We need a woman who's
strong-willed but hot."

She has to be strong-willed but hot,

meaning that a strong-willed woman

is usually not attractive.

The bimbo. Hot mamacita.

Seductress. Voluptuous.

Curvaceous. Sassy.

I make you feel real nice today.

I played this one character

who was an Asian masseuse.

And I remember when that casting
breakdown was being faxed to me

and was like, "Is she also a bad
driver and is she good at maths?"

I mean, how many stereotypes can you
roll into this one character?

You read some of these scripts
and you're like,

"This is what you're going to do?

"This? And then you're going
to get money to make this,

"and then you're going to
put this thought out

"into the world with these
characters?"

When I first started
my TV writing career,

they were always looking
for a female writer to hire.

It's terrible to say, but at
the time I felt really fortunate.

I was like, "Oh, they're looking
for a female writer.

"I could be that female writer."

But of course
I wasn't putting it together

because they already have a writers'
room of 11 guys.

And there wasn't a lot
of interest in...

authentic female stories,
I'll put it that way.

In some ways I think there's a lot
of 20 and 30-something male writers

who, they'd admit,

"I'm not really sure I want to know
what's in a woman's head," you know?

"I'd rather stand out here
and put a gun in a guy's hand

"and I'll write that story."

In some respects,
we may have been shirking it.

They were just
telling their stories,

and in their stories, many times,
we were one dimensional objects.

It's limited choices,

and that's just because it comes
from limited imaginations.

You bad girl.

You'll find out.

In the very early cinema,

shockingly, you find
something different.

In the late '20s, early '30s,

we did have a lot
of women writing screenplays.

I mean, a lot.
I would say, like, 50-50.

What you're seeing is the modern
woman expressed on screen.

I don't believe in what you believe,
that's all.

I don't want to get married.

I'm a doctor.

And, very importantly,

you can have a woman be very
sexually adventurous.

Hold me close.

The '20s and '30s
was the sexiest time

for women in movies.

The Bette Davises, the Mae Wests.

A little bit spicy, but not so raw.

You know what I mean?

The Garbos.
They were naughty women.

They were dangerous women.

Your hand is shaking.

Women who starred in the movies
had a lot of power in those days,

and they were box office

and they were saying,
"I want to do stuff that's real."

I want to do it

and not have somebody tell me
I ought to do something else.

Women and film were enjoying
free expression.

And all of a sudden this vein
was just cut off.

It was just gone.

The vulgar, the cheap
and the tawdry is out.

There is no room on the screen
at any time

for pictures which offend
against common decency.

The Hollywood Production Code
was invented

so that Hollywood could
police itself

and, in that policing, prevent any
kind of state censorship.

Goodnight. Goodnight.

Couples are sleeping
in separate beds.

Keep both feet firmly planted
on the floor.

Kisses were only allowed to be three
seconds long,

and what the kiss would lead to
could never be shown.

No sexual relations between
white and black characters.

There was no sex allowed
outside of marriage.

Goodbye, Mother.

But also sex outside of marriage, to
the extent that it could be shown,

had to be shown as something
that was tragic.

Goodbye, baby.

GUNSHOTS

We had different groups of people

locked into a
certain representation.

Just hold on and suck in!

They're servants.
They're the sidekick.

Turn me loose...!

Hattie McDaniel,
who was crazily talented,

had to perfect the ability
to play Mammy.

What's that rustling noise I hear?

Lord, Mr Redd, that ain't nothing
but my red silk petticoat

you done give me.

Black woman had to be positioned
in this way

in which they were
sexually nonthreatening

to white women on screen.

Later on, they were
hypersexual or deviant.

I suggest that,
while you're on this ship,

you wear something
a little less revealing.

Does it bother the captain?

Hollywood didn't have in mind black
female actresses as leading ladies.

Anna May Wong was the first
Chinese American movie star.

She was always cast
as the Dragon Lady...

Ronald...

..the person who would
steal your husband.

With the code, interracial marriage
was not acceptable.

It prevented her from ever being
a leading lady.

Don't do anything foolish.

Women's roles were destroyed...

Now you listen to me.
You're going to marry Phil Marshall

and keep your mouth shut
till you die.

..just at a time when women and film
were enjoying some agency.

After my first movie,
when I started going on auditions,

I hated asking for anything.

And just by dint of being there,
you're kind of in this position,

you know, to say alms for the poor.

..because I forget
that I'm famous...

The feedback I would get, you know,
going in for, like,

these female leads would be like,
"Is she sexy enough?"

Do it like Shakespeare but sexy. OK.

Right there, please.
Nice to meet you.

You're being dissected immediately
for your body.

And it's something about
being in a long hallway

with all these girls with tight tops
and mini skirts on and a big dream.

The amount of parts that say
"nudity required"

or, like, "simulated sex required"

creates a situation where
all women have to decide yes or no

before they even
get to audition for the role.

You will lose out on work
if you're not willing to do nudity.

At the big studios
they called it Bikini Day.

They would write a part for a girl

that had to be in a bikini
for no apparent reason.

So then they would have auditions
for said Bikini Girl,

and that would be the day they could
get all of the producers there

and the director there to decide
on other, more important roles.

When I was younger,
I definitely went to auditions

for the...the... You know...

Sexy teenager.

Lorimar presents Blake Edwards' SOB.

We were all required
to come in wearing a bikini.

I was very well-endowed.
And I got the part.

We were about to shoot
Blake Edwards.

He said, "OK, so Rosanna,
when you come in. You know what?

"Let's just lose the bikini top.
OK, everybody, let's go."

And I was like, "Mr... Mr Edwards,

"you mean take my...
Take my bikini top off?"

I was 19 at the time.

And he goes, "Yeah,
do you have a problem with that?"

And I said, "Well, I didn't know
I was going to be nude.

"I didn't know I was going
to be naked."

And he goes, "Oh, man, Tony." His
producer, he goes, "Call her agent."

And I just remembered, like,
everybody waiting for me

and then looking, you know...

And I was such in a panic
and I did it.

And I was... Felt very humiliated
and very sad about it.

But, you know, this was...
those days.

It was a completely different
consciousness.

You were expected
to do these things.

The best way to do this,
to get the right head motion

and also the DP's going to have to
put the camera in the right place,

is you make a fist,
you put your thumb here.

You suck your own thumb,

and if you put the camera right
behind them,

then you get the whole thing
and it gets... Freaky.

..look of it. Wow.

I did not know that. Wow.

Yep. OK.

Today, we're going to be getting
to the core of what does it mean

to be an intimacy coordinator

and, like, how does
all this stuff function?

We're going to talk about the three
most common types or, like, themes

in choreography, which are romance,
passion, dominance.

So what sorts of touch
are associated,

and then what are some, like,
hints in terms of often dialogue

that we're going in the direction
of this theme.

Romance typically has a gentle
but solid feeling at the same time.

See how light he's being?
Yeah. Yeah.

Long, soft, continuous strokes
over different areas of the body -

that reads romantic.

They're about to go into passion.

And here we go.

It's kind of animalistic and they
kind of just, like, allow themselves

to get lost in the experience
and it's a bit out of control.

So the last one's dominance.

The energy tends to be
cool, calm, collected.

It can be sadistic.

Can be punishing.

Just is occurring to me
how fraught this is for men.

A lot of them are afraid of, like,

"What if I, like, cross
another person's boundaries?"

Or, "What if I, like, harm her
or do something?" You know...

And yet to do a good job,
it needs to look a certain way.

I mean, it's a lot of...
It's like an exaggeration

of everything in the culture
happening... Yeah.

OK. Here we go.
Let's lock it up, please.

Take one.

All right. Quiet now, on a bell.

BELL RINGS

And...roll, please.

Speed!

If there's going to be nudity
or a sex scene in a movie,

SAG has certain requirements.

They have to send you in writing

what the sex or the nudity
is going to entail.

The Nudity Rider is a very thorough
list of what can or cannot be shown

and what you will or will not do.

You have these
fairly dry conversations

about boob, side boob,

nipple, flank.

That's a big one, flank.

Let me see your tits.

For the purposes of this nudity
consent rider, player agrees

that player services will require
nudity and/or simulated sex scenes

in accordance with the terms
and conditions provided herein.

Very nice.

I'll show the side of my breast,
but not my nipple.

I'll show my rear end.

But I only want part of the butt
crack to show.

It's sometimes a little odd to go
through how specific it is.

You know, whether you're going
to see the nipple or not

or the areola or not.

It even gets as specific

as, like, if you have a position,
if you're doing, like, doggy style,

for example, it includes
the anal cavity.

And even with the nudity rider,
it's not entirely perfect.

Thought that's what you wanted.

It has definitely happened
where people thought a scene

was going to get portrayed
one way and they arrive

and all of a sudden the director
has this other really creative idea.

The sex scene wasn't,
"Oh, we're making love."

It's very harsh.

Things that they would not have
agreed to if they had understood

how the director was going
to film that nude scene.

If it's not SAG,
you don't have protections.

There's that whole arena of movies
where you're not covered by a union.

You have no protections.

I went on set and I discovered
that I had two nude scenes, not one.

I was told that it was going to be
empowering.

In this industry,
things happen so fast.

They don't really, you know,
sit down with you

like, "Oh, we're thinking
about doing it this way,

"or this other way."

When I saw the final product, I
didn't think it was tasteful at all.

Talent to set.

And that's why it's really so
important on a set to have a person

who can help you enforce
your rights.

Action.

The hair I'm using is human hair,
it's permed and straightened.

And I've got two or three different
colours here

and I'm blending
the colours together.

Actors that are doing mainstream
entertainment

are not signing up to
do a real sex scene.

They're not really having sex,

but they have to really look like
they are.

So a merkin is essentially
a pubic hair wig.

A lot of ladies say they like
wearing the modesty garment

with a merkin over it
cos they look totally naked

but they don't feel like they are.

They feel like they're wearing
an item of clothing still,

so they feel safe.

And then when it's done,
it's very natural looking.

I like to present them in nice
little boxes.

Kind of makes everybody
kind of comfortable

about the whole situation,
which can be very awkward.

Hi. Good morning. Hi.

Do you have any skin allergies?
No. Perfect.

The experience of shooting
a sex scene is, like,

the least sexy thing in the world.

They will have a modesty garment on,

which is a very small pair
of panties

that has no sides and no back.

Some people are very nervous.

It's not something they do
every day.

And, action for rehearsal.

It's also strange because you
usually just meet,

and there you are touching
each other

and laying all over each other.

Let's have her on top now.
Roll over.

That's great.

Hold there.

With rehearsal, we just kind of
walk through the steps.

OK, now start over.

"Here's the position."
Or, "Now they're on the couch."

Or, "Now you're sitting here.

"Go right, left, up, down.
Spin in a circle and land.

"And then the guy's going
to yank your head back."

You don't go to school
and learn how to, you know,

choreograph sex scenes.

Cameras rolling.

I was on set, and was working
on a film

that required quite a bit of nudity.

The DP tried to sneakily and
very slowly move the camera,

so that it could shoot the
lower part of me nude

as well as the upper part.

Every day that I went to work
after that,

I thought about how much had they
shot that we hadn't caught.

Playing an intimate scene
with another partner, you know,

it's awkward, not intimate at all,
and very disconnected.

When I watched it,
the nakedness of my body

being turned into an image
for anyone to see,

suddenly, I realised my body
wasn't mine.

You're simulating sex,

but there's only so much
simulating you can do.

You can't simulate a kiss -
you have to really kiss someone.

And you have to really touch
their naked body.

Like, I almost - when I have had to
do sex scenes, and I've done many -

it's almost like I go
into a blackout.

Like, I just have to get it
over with.

I wake up that morning
with so much dread.

Oftentimes, I did what I normally do
when I get freaked out,

I just kind of leave my body
and float up to the ceiling.

My first tendency is, almost,
go numb to it,

because it's too intense.

And yet, if I do that,
then I'm not present

and I'm not doing the best work
as an actor that I can do.

With American puritanism,

it's hard to talk about sex.

Sex is taboo.

It is the realm of real people
in real bodies

having relations with one another.

That's not so comfortable
to the film-makers.

Say mercy! No. Come on. No.

Say mercy. No.

The first sex scene I ever did
was on my first feature, DEBS,

and I was so nervous.

Nobody feels comfortable talking
about sex, period.

Nobody feels comfortable saying
they're uncomfortable.

It's a moment of intimacy.

Trying to have, like, a ten-minute
conversation with a director

or a producer to be like,
"So, you're OK with these things?

"Check, check, check,"
is not a very thorough way

to define your boundaries.

There is so much shame around
the body, around desire.

There are a lot of directors who
don't know how to talk about sex,

because it remains this forbidden
area of our lives.

Oh, God. Oh...

Jesus Christ.

The 1960s and the early '70s were
the era of sexual revolution.

Everything was changing.

And with the rise of hardcore
pornography on big screens,

the avant-garde -
like Andy Warhol's art films -

and the Europeans leading the way,

I think it just became absurd
for movies to pretend

that the era of the code
was still operating.

Mom.

This is John.

The world of European
sexual liberty...

..and American prudery sort of
come together

in the career of Jane Fonda.

Man, you sure do look different.

Oh, boy. You not only don't
talk much, you don't say much.

JANE FONDA: In the first part of
my career, when I was playing

ingenue roles here in
the United States,

I was never asked to take
my clothes off.

I mean, this was the late '50s,
early '60s.

It wasn't until I went to France,

under the guidance of Roger Vadim.

I fell in love with him,
and I eventually married him.

I knew what I was getting into.

He never made a movie where
women weren't undressed,

so I knew that was coming along -
and it did, and I did it.

Roger promised me that he would
use the letters of the titles

to cover...the important things.

Which was only partly realised.

I was utterly terrified.

I was 30, I should have
known better.

But I was at a place in my life when
if you were asked to do something,

especially by a man, you did it.

I didn't know anything about
nudity clauses and contracts,

and all those other things.

I just did what I was told.

And so I...

I just got drunk, basically.

Now it was possible to play
with different rules,

but the different rules were
not a whole lot different

from the old rules.

I think these early films
showed how, for men,

sex is a very homosocial relation,

whether it's Jon Voight and Dustin
Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy...

Here.

..or Art Garfunkel and
Jack Nicholson in Carnal Knowledge.

What do you say?

What the man is often doing

is proving his virility to his
friends via a woman.

Breasts were now completely
available for looking at,

but male frontal nudity
was really frowned on.

Real portrayal of romance
and intimacy,

as it's practised in life,

weren't part of the American
cinematic lexicon

for decades and decades and decades.

And suddenly, when censorship
lifted in the 1960s,

we went from having romance
without sex

to having sex without romance.

Oh, yeah.

Wait.

Why don't you turn out the lights?

In the '70s so-called
blaxploitation films,

you see a lot of sex, drugs,

lots of female nudity,

and these different characters
who were not Sidney Poitier

being accepted into a white world.

We have bad-ass heroes, right?

Black heroes.

They spoke to the black
power movement

and the black feminist movement.

You want me to crawl,
white motherfucker?

What are you doing? Put that down.

You want to spit on me
and make me crawl?

The people loved it.

We were breaking
all kinds of records.

Black women were, quote, sex
goddesses for the very first time.

For our hue, it was new.

How many love scenes did you see
of us in any movie

during that period of
the '60s and '70s?

None.

But, of course, there was
controversy from the very beginning.

There's harems of women who were
at the disposal of these men,

which really highlighted
their sexual bodies.

Sort of an extreme voyeuristic
eroticism.

Turn around slowly.

Of course, you had Gloria Hendry,

who was the first black woman
being a Bond girl.

Ah, beautiful, brave,
and now resourceful.

It was really a watershed moment.

But the film only goes so far.

I think that the white people
were scared of the repercussions

of their base, having a black
activist wind up with Bond.

Oh, James.

She's killed, of course.

A black activist couldn't possibly
wind up with Bond.

Out of 5,000 pairs of legs,
I was chosen.

And I thought, wow,

no-one's ever going to know
that it's me on the screen.

It was just like a cattle call,

and they were like, "Your legs, yes.
Your legs, no. Your legs, maybe."

OK, let's bring in the body double.

Hi. Hi.

I'm Mindy. Pleased to meet you.
Nice to meet you.

Our body is on the film
that you're seeing.

You're there to make the actress
look perfect.

Perfect legs, perfect breasts.

Perfect body.

I think the public would be
shocked to find out

how many hands aren't really the
hand of the talent,

or the butt of the talent.

Kim Basinger.

Madonna, Barbra Streisand.

In Pretty Woman,
the whole opening scene,

where she's getting dressed
to meet Richard Gere,

that's my body.

Body doubling is really hush-hush.

I was Janet Leigh's acting double
in the shower scene of Psycho.

You don't see her face - that's me.

That's the back of my head,

my hands, my arms, my belly button.

Janet Leigh wrote her biography,

and she let on that she did
the whole thing.

Pissed me off.

That I wasn't recognised.

In Rising Sun,
I was the live body sushi plate.

A SWAT team is breaking through
the window, and I'm there nude

with this sushi on me.

And I remember looking away, saying,

"I'm not going to get cut
by the glass."

But if you're a body double, they
pull you out like a chicken dinner.

You're like, bring out the breasts,
bring out the thighs,

bring out the leg. They just think,
oh, you're just there.

You're just kind of not real.

Somebody in the producing department
wants there to be less smile lines.

So I've aged her down slightly.

My work consists of visual effects
generally, but a lot of requests

I get from clients is

to do beauty work.

She's got a little mole here.

Sample it.

And...all right...

Removing blemishes, freckles,
pubic hair,

slimming people up,

making them look younger.

It was a heavily guarded secret
when it first came out.

Now, most people on television
and film get it done.

As far as making somebody look
younger, it's mostly a request

for women, cleaning up, like, bags
under the eyes or neck wrinkles.

I get asked to do face replacements
a lot, and usually

that has to do with stunts.

So if there's a stunt double
and their face is visible,

then we put the actual actor's face
on the stunt.

But they're starting to do this
more often for beauty purposes,

so you get a stunt body
or a body double.

In Game Of Thrones,

it was somebody else's body,
and her head was literally stitched

right on top of that body.

There was a request that came in
from a client

for me to remove a postnatal belly.

Because this actress had
just given birth.

So that was just a matter
of taking her body,

Rotoing it out, cutting it out,

squeezing it and then basically

putting it right back on
and cleaning up the background

wherever her belly would have been.

That was before.

And that's after.

Actors and actresses buy into it
and THEY persist it

and THEY ask for it because
they believe that this is important

and this is needed and that we need
to portray our best selves.

We should all be looking
like china dolls, you know,

we should all have flawless faces.

Whatever we do, we always want
to look our very best.

I don't respond to ultra-beauty
in my life.

I like flaws
and I like to see natural people.

I feel like I'm part of the problem

instead of the solution for that.

INDISTINCT CHATTER

Damn it! I can't see a thing!

In American movies...

Mind if I join you?

..there has always been limits
to who's allowed to be sexual.

Ah...

I worked for a television producer

earlier in my career who, when we
were casting day player roles,

said, "There are no fat women
in my shows."

And I remember at the time going,

"Wow, like he's created a whole
universe,

"and it's true, in his brand,
there are no fat women."

I'm fat. That's not a bad word.

And I am fat,
naked and in front of a lover too.

I only see that as a joke.

I get it. You're self-conscious
about your body.

Don't worry. I was going to shut
the lights off anyway.

But then, for us, it's like,
"Turn off the lights. Don't see me."

What we see on the screen affects
what you take into the bedroom.

You're cool with going out
the back again, right? Um...

It is very few, very few,

extremely rare

and far between

to see people with disabilities
in sexual situations.

So people don't genuinely think
that it exists.

I don't want you

to miss all the things that someone
else could give you.

Louisa...

I once told my manager, "I'm not
going to play anybody in a hospital,

"I'm not going to play any more
lawyers

"or desexualised trans people,

"and I'm not going to play anyone
who visits anybody in a hospital."

And I didn't work for two years.

So, if I keep taking the hormones...
You'd be feeding the cancer.

Are you saying if I become a woman,
I could die?

In Hollywood,
exclusion is part of the story.

Here, try this.

VOICEOVER: When I was a teenager,
there wasn't

that much queer representation
at all.

So what do you think?

You'd like, scour the video store
for, like,

obtuse glances between women
on video boxes.

In The Color Purple,
these women love each other,

they see each other sexually,

but doesn't go full-on into sex
scenes.

You two have met, haven't you?

Or it's about some weird

male fantasy spectacle.

And we have to remember,
the censors are white,

cisgender, heteronormative men...

..who said, "Look, if you're going
to do this,

"if you're going to be naked, we
want to see two women together.

"Because that's art."

Right?

Penises are pornography.

Tits are art.

Film has been men
showing other men what they see.

What is visual pleasure?

It's not actually about watching
two other people.

All it is is about the male fantasy.

I don't know anything that I saw
growing up that told me

that I could have the agenda
of being the one

who wanted the pleasure.

HE GRUNTS WITH PLEASURE

Nobody actually tells a woman
that when she has sex, you know,

there is a space where
she gets to have the pleasure.

She's not the one just giving
pleasure.

How women are satisfied,
what that looks like, how that works

in real life, like, it's still a
mystery, I think, to so many people.

Tell me what you think.

Honestly?

Think about all
the movies where men would be having

an important conversation...

Here's to old friends.

..and hot women would just be
sitting at the table

while it's happening. Just like,
kind of just there as decoration.

This round's on me.

The way in which women can just be
kind of present but unnecessary.

You be the man
and you be the woman.

You had to cast those two girls,
and they had to sit there,

fake fucking all day.

And...it's kind of a bummer.

I think it really does damage
to girls in particular,

that's what bothers me.

Girls feeling that they have
to behave a certain way

and look a certain way.

Without even consciously
realising it,

they will just assume that they are
less than...

..that they don't quite count
as much.

The more that we perpetuate and
condone women as being merely

sex objects, the more readily boys
grow into men thinking

that that's
how women want to be treated.

It's in every movie and TV show
they've ever watched.

Actors who are starting out are used
in these films that ask for nudity

and sex scenes because

they don't know how to advocate for
themselves or they don't have the

power to advocate for themselves. An
A-list actor who's asked to do

a nude scene, they can have
a body double.

They get to say, "The light has to
be dim, and the actor can only

"touch me from here to here."

It's like I have never had
that much protection in a film,

but I've done nudity a lot.

Like, I've done sex scenes a lot.

It's like,
"Oh, you have to pay your dues

"and you just have to be grateful
that you're here at all."

I'm not some great, fabulous beauty.

When I walk into a room, people
don't turn around and go like,

"Who's that girl?
Put her in the picture."

I started taking classes
at James Franco's acting school.

When James took a chance on me,
I was so grateful.

The way that I got hired
for The Long Home was by getting

a text message from James.

He said, "I want you to be
in my movie.

"Nudity will be required.

"You're playing a prostitute. Do you
want to do it?" And I said...

.."Absolutely. Like, no questions
asked. Yes."

Hey, Candy, they want YOU.

And then things started
to sort of get a little tricky

because there were some scenes
that were added

that weren't in the script
that required nudity.

And one actress
didn't want to do it.

The next thing I know,
she's on a plane back to LA,

and she's not in the movie.

And I realised if I do something
like that, if I say,

"I'm uncomfortable with this,

"I don't want to do this,"
I'll lose my job.

Sarah Scott is an actress whose most
recent work includes an appearance

on the Seth Macfarlane show
The Orville,

and she played Courtney Love
in the film Soaked In Bleach.

Thank you for having the courage
to come in and talk to us.

This is an incident that happened
in May of '18, 2018.

Mm-hm, it's an independent TV pilot.

It was the last scene of the day.

I remember being really cold
that night and made mention of it.

My scene partner cuddled up to me
and said he would keep me warm.

Knowing that we were about to start
kissing,

I just kind of went with that.
That was fine.

He cuddled up to me and...
didn't think much of it.

At that point, he took my hand
under the covers

and brought it over to his...

..erection.

DEEP BREATHING

I pulled my hand back and looked...
and looked back over my shoulder,

like, "What the fuck?"
And he just said sorry.

SARAH SCOTT SIGHS

I've thought a lot about this.
I'm not upset with myself

that I didn't do something
in the moment,

I'm very well aware
that that's very common.

A lot of the women I've spoken
to don't ever say anything.

And I think being in a professional
setting, I also just wanted

to be a professional and keep
going and finish the day off.

Cut. Terrific.

And so after the day had wrapped
up and I was getting ready to leave

for the night, my co-star walks
through my dressing room and starts

telling me that he's got a hard on.

He's got to go jerk off
in the bathroom.

When I turned around, he had taken
out his penis and started

to masturbate in front of me,
two feet in front of me,

and that's when I left.

So he did, however, in the LA
Times give a statement saying

that he was apologising, he said.

He admitted that he had put your
hand on his penis during a sex scene

but he said you were
sexually aggressive.

It was really disturbing to see
what a convincing case he made

in playing the sort of doe-eyed
innocent, embarrassed,

"Oops, I misread the situation."
And then even use the words

that, "I just mistook this for a
perk of our jobs."

It just became so clear to me
that I was dealing with someone

who was a predator.

I've been a proud union
member for over 15 years.

That's how I have my health
insurance and support my family.

So the way that I see myself
is that I'm kind of a

blue-collar working actor.

OK, ladies, I want to see
you dance

and I want to see you smile.

And you...

I started to get this feeling like I
was the first actress to ever

call the union and say,

"Hey, I've been sexually
violated at work."

It's interesting because
the SAG-AFTRA basic agreement is

800 pages or something like that,
and nudity is, like, a page.

If that. It's like... Wow.
It's like I literally have it right

here on... It's half a page.
It's this. Wow.

Sexual harassment is not
mentioned in 800 pages.

Really? Yeah.
Interesting.

The situations, like,
that I've been in,

I think that the gentleman,
you know, whatever happened,

it wouldn't have happened
had I been more famous

or more powerful than he.

I was told by someone in the legal
department verbatim that, quote,

"I probably wouldn't be satisfied

"with the results of the hearing."

And I interpreted that as...

..basically nothing is going
to happen.

When the LA Times article came out,

a lot of actresses reached out to
me...

..just telling me, you know,

how proud they were and how...

..how many actresses had similar
experiences but never said anything.

And that made my stomach turn.

Just the realisation that this is
such a widespread problem

in this industry.

What does it mean for boys and girls
to grow up in a culture

where they see men being aggressive
in film to get the girl?

They pull women into these
passionate kisses.

Stop it!

Maybe she resists a little bit,
like right at first,

but he can kiss her into submission.

Wait a minute! Wait a minute!

Now that's a really common scene.

Hollywood certainly knows how to do
violence very, very well.

Much better than it knows
how to do sex.

When sex and violence come
together, it's rape.

No, no.

There's so many rape scenes
in movies because a lot of times,

you know, scripts are written
and they imagine

that this is the only way a female
character can get strong

is if she's raped - for no apparent
reason, other than they think

something bad needs to happen
to her so she can rise up

and go murder all the people
in revenge.

MUFFLED CRIES

What kind of message does
that send out?

My name is Buck,
and I'm here to fuck.

Your name is Buck and you
came here to fuck, right?

Wait a minute...

HE SCREAMS

There's some hatred
for women going on

when you have to brutalise people,

you know, and treat them
as subhuman, but then get the glory

that you create strong female
characters.

That's not strong women.

Those are brutalised women
that have to survive...

..and look good while doing so.

In the age of the internet, actors
have to make this decision

of if I'm nude, it's going to get
giffed and played on a loop,

and you can't regulate that
any more.

The nudity will get repurposed
to do all sorts of things.

They'll put other people's faces on.

It's kind of not
what they signed up for.

You have to literally go and fight
them on every single website

these things appear on, and even if
you win, the next day it shows

up on a different website.

The producer basically responded by
saying, "This is just what happens.

"This is part of being an actor."

When Jennifer's Body was coming
out, we were at a new point

where we were seeing how social
media can be used as a tool to shape

perception. In the film,

I wanted to comment on the tropes
around how we look at girls'

and women's bodies,

looking back at late '70s,
early '80s horror slasher films.

But what that requires
is using the tropes.

There was a decision on the part
of the studio, I think, to market

the film to young boys as opposed
to young women, as if to promise

something with Megan Fox
that they were never going to get.

I was shocked by the reaction
and the way social media

kind of worked so quickly
against the film.

There was so much adolescent angst
about some lack of male relevance.

And I think since then we've seen
how much warfare is waged

against women by using their bodies
against them.

Now...

..pull your dress up and let me
see your legs.

The Hollywood machine is something
to be survived.

Turn around a second.

Is something wrong?

As a matter of fact,
everything is...

..very, very right.

It's very common to go to hotel
rooms and to be asked to audition.

That was kind of a thing
back when I started.

He's ready for you.
Thank you.

I was raised to believe
that you never wanted to make

a man uncomfortable.

You didn't want to make him feel
like he had done something wrong.

He grabbed me.

Tried to kiss me.

So if he advances on you,
you know, your thing is to

kind of giggle and ease yourself
out of there.

After I got blacklisted, I started
being harassed behind the scenes

by my monster.

He... He has...

..detectives on staff.

Harvey Weinstein is not
the only one.

We have situations now where
it's taken a while for a client

to be willing to come out
against somebody.

And, you know,
the studio makes excuses.

I could file a complaint
for you if that's what you want.

But I think you know
how it would come off.

You see all the people that protect
Harvey, this predator, and the many,

many predators there are
in this town that are very big guys

in the business.

There are so many other men.
They're not Harvey Weinsteins

but I don't want to wait until these
people are all Harvey Weinstein.

I want them to stop doing it now.

Doralee, please. I want you...

Men feel entitled...

..by a lot of stuff that's
rolling around in their heads

that has sexualised women and
embraced them as sexual commodities

to the extent that they feel
comfortable doing that.

If you're wearing something,
please get naked.

I believe in only two things.
The First Amendment and boobs.

She needs to drop a few.

What do you think about this?
Gretchen's beautiful. Beautiful.

I love the women's movement,
especially when walking behind it.

Now when you're sold as a sex
symbol, it's like the message

that men out there in the world get
is that they can all touch you

and that they own you.

It makes her a slut, right?

He began running his hands
over my body and grinding into me.

Because you've turned them on.

Nice ass.
You've made them do it.

You can do anything. Whatever you
want. Grab them by the pussy.

It really didn't feel that there was
a system in place for this

kind of a complaint.

How sure can this committee
be on the accuracy

of your statements?

What you want to do is destroy
this guy's life.

Are you interested in writing
a book?

Nobody has made amends.

Shame.

Nobody has apologised.

Nobody has taken ownership
of having done this to us.

I categorically
and unequivocally deny

the allegation against me
by Dr Ford. I have not been guilty

of sexual misconduct.

The allegation is completely false.

These allegations are false.
It's just not true. Not true.

You can't just be on our shoulders
and we can't continue to be gaslit

by these people.

We're made to feel like we're crazy
if we're being uncomfortable.

OVERLAPPING VOICES

Are you a scorned woman?

Are you guys ready to move
into a little bit of rehearsal?

You're going to be taking
off her shirt. OK.

And from what I understand,
it's a pretty wide neck,

so you shouldn't have any issue
just coming up and pulling

it over Jennifer's head. Yeah?

And then as we discussed,
you will take your bra off.

You know, you can position yourself
on the edge of the bed here, right?

Maybe you could place Dan's hand
somewhere on your upper inner thigh,

on the left leg. Maybe right here
would be fine.

And then here? Yeah.

You can move your head a little bit.

And you can cheat it so that your
head is not so turned.

Yeah.

And then... I'll be like this.
Great.

Love to see, touching his head,
tugging on his hair a little. OK.

How does that feel for both of you?
I'm fine.

OK. OK.

Great.

On season one, we had a moment
where there were some criticisms

of our lead actor, James Franco,

for stuff that had happened not
on our set,

but had happened on indie films that
he had worked on.

So what are you doing tonight?

But nonetheless, I felt
the need to ask

all the principal cast members,

did you have any problems
on our set?

Emily Meade rather bravely said
things didn't go right on set.

One day I'll tell you about it.

I was playing a prostitute
turned porn star.

I was 26...

..and I was starting to realise how
much I was having to constantly

dissociate, to, like,
show up to my job.

There were circumstances
where I wound up having to do

a very intimate sex scene
with a completely

random background actor.

I was not willing to be on the show
with things the way

they were, wanting to protect
the women involved in this show.

Emily basically said,
"We can do this better,"

and then it was our job to listen.

The best thing I could come up with
was that there should be

a person who was there,

who their sole job is to facilitate,

protect, and just be there for sex
scenes, like a stunt coordinator.

GUNSHOTS

HE GRUNTS IN PAIN

We have entire departments
of people who are there to make sure

nobody gets hurt
when we're simulating violence.

But we hadn't, at this point, hired
somebody whose sole area

of expertise was, let's make sure
nobody gets emotionally hurt

or physically hurt, or, you know,
when we're simulating intimacy.

I'm there to make sure the actors
are safe, but also to check

in and make sure what is happening
on set is consensual

and what is happening is
what was agreed to.

I don't want to disappoint anybody.

That was probably always the hardest
part for me,

having to, like, look someone in the
eyes, a man specifically,

and disappoint them about what I'm
willing to do, sexually.

She could go tell the
director, like,

"Emily's feeling
"a little strange about this,"

warn the director of that so
they can roll their eyes,

or have whatever private
reaction they want to,

and I don't have to see it and feel
insecure or embarrassed.

Let's go, sweetheart.

And we're good?

It was just the process
of having that conversation,

and feeling like I had a choice,
and, like, I wasn't in a corner.

All right. First step is Lori
and Andy.

The Deuce wound up being the first
network television show

to have an intimacy coordinator,

and then HBO wound up being
the first network to have

network-wide intimacy
coordinators used.

There are certain things
that might have been acceptable

five years ago, ten years ago,
20 years ago

that are not acceptable now.

And I think it took Time's Up,

it took #MeToo, it took...

..this entire shift for people to
look at scenes like this

and say, "We can do better."

You're going to listen, Laurie,

whether you like it or not.

There's clearly a deeply
entrenched terror

of male privilege and power
being taken away.

I'm not going to be stopped
by three dumb-witted broads.

I wanted to show that you could
cut off the head of power

instead of biting at ankles,

that if everybody is always kind of
complaining about the same thing...

..maybe we can do something
about it.

I do feel optimistic...

..but Hollywood is definitely
sexist,

definitely racist place.

And it's going to take a
lot to dismantle...

..those systems.

The #MeToo movement ushered
in a greater level

of the magnifying glass.

That long-held patriarchal power
in Hollywood was rendered

vulnerable, really, for the very
first time in a very real way.

Harvey Weinstein surrendering
to police.

Leslie Moonves' career at CBS
came to an end in September.

..has been suspended in the wake of
sexual harassment accusations.

James Franco snubbed by the Oscars
in a week of allegations...

..found actor Kip Pardue guilty
of serious misconduct.

I think that many films...

..have women in peril.

Some Prince Charming has to come
and save us.

And we come to believe that we

innately don't have
the power to save ourselves.

But we do.

Women are finally finding a voice.

Before doing Vida,

I hadn't experienced too much in
the roles of getting to play

an American like me,
a Latina like me.

It is by design that we are seeing
a woman pursue her sexuality

and pleasure in a very unapologetic
fashion.

We haven't got a chance to us,
like, create complicated

images of ourselves, and these
girls I created were shitty, messy.

They made really bad decisions.

Dominant culture gets to tell
all that, all the time.

When do we get to say it?

The sex scenes started
in the writers' room.

These girls, they knew exactly
how to get off, what they wanted.

It progressed the story,
it wasn't as gratuitous.

Tanya brought me into the editing
room just to make sure

I was completely comfortable
with the way that certain things

were being shot.

You know, is this...is this
all right?

It's nice to have somebody checking
in on you, even after the fact.

The Sex Lives Of College Girls
is about

freshmen, college suite mates,

who are navigating their sexuality.

So how does this work?

Do we just take our clothes
off and go inside?

Fuck it. I'm going in.

I have a disability.

My character clearly will
also have a disability.

But who my character is, is not
predicated on the fact

that I'm a disabled woman.

Honey, I pull.

Hey.

It's still about my sexuality.

Do any of you know where a girl
named Sarah is?

No. Sorry. I don't.

It's the most refreshing thing
to have a character,

especially a wheelchair user,

be sexy, be sex positive, be sexual,

to be seen as desired and loved,

because we deserve it too.

There was a time in my life
when I felt...free.

Oh, Jesus.

I always knew that it would be noisy

to make a show about female desire
and sexuality,

about a woman who wants sex,

who admits she's had sex,

that she wants to have more of it,

and not punishing her for her desire
is in itself a revolutionary act.

When you make that woman a mother,
it is just charging straight

into these opinions in society

that martyrdom is
the ideal for mothers.

Morning, mummy.

I also felt like we cannot tell
this whole story,

and just not even have one shot
of a penis.

We put it in the cut,

and the Netflix executives were very
nervous about it

and asked us to consider
taking it out.

They were concerned that it
would be off-putting to women.

Not heterosexual women!

I think everything I've been doing

has been an attempt to investigate
the male gaze.

All these ways in which the camera
has kind of stood in for an assumed

masculine protagonist, and to kind
of reset it, saying, you know,

"I'm the subject, you're the
object."

Consent doesn't have to be this kind
of, like, mushy thing that's,

like, shrouded in questions
about shame and gender.

When I'm filming, I'm always wanting
to, like, put the camera

into the place of the character's
desire.

So it's like, instead of taking
the camera up here or out here,

I'm always, like, literally
imagining the camera moving down

into, like, the gut.

Really, really opened up in me.

My sensitivity as a human
being translated into what I could

bring to the camera.

The camera's approach is honouring
the space for the actors.

Joey would say that I had a mussy,

and say, "Jimmy, shoot
from your mussy."

Because I don't think that a man
only has a male gaze

or a woman would only have a
female gaze.

I wanted to be naked because, first
of all, that had never been done.

And the second reason was that
I wanted to show this relationship,

and these two human beings are just
like, they have conversations

after people take showers
and they're naked.

We can't afford any more bills.

I can't believe I have to say this.

Trans people actually have sex.

We have sex with other people!

Isn't that weird? I know, it's
strange, but it's true.

Everybody is doing this thing
called love.

I'm really interested in pursuing
the notion of female desire.

Be it ambition or sex or romance.

The idea that there is
a subjectivity,

and often a voraciousness

that comes from a female
perspective.

In terms of making films,

the most important thing is women
have been doing this forever.

You know, that we're not the first.

Women were putting the camera
in a place of empathy.

Yearning, longing, wanting.

There is a rediscovery of lost
black films that celebrate

romance and intimacy.

These films have always existed.

It's changing.

You can feel it. You can feel it

in the writers' rooms.

You can feel it talking
to producers.

When I'm on the set
of Grace And Frankie,

half the people there are women.

Trust me, when I started out in '58,
'59, there wasn't a woman,

except maybe the script supervisor,
on the set.

We're making vibrators for women
with arthritis.

Yes, vibrators!

We're making things for people like
us, because we are sick and tired

of being dismissed by
people like you. Mic drop.

OK, come on in.

I'm hoping that there will be a more
seismic shift

happening more rapidly now.

Hey.

Yeah, sure.

I think we need more...

You'll see more women greenlight
a series...

..to greenlight a movie,

and when you see that, you'll see
more movies that empower women.

OK. And...cut.

Actresses, for the first
time since I would say the '30s,

have power.

Men want to be looking at women
in the way

that you look at a protagonist
in a movie, which is as yourself.

And for some reason, I think
men weren't making

that kind of transference.

Now it's happening.

The beauty of film and television
and media

is that we have the ability
to reach people's living rooms.

And when you see somebody
that maybe doesn't look like you,

but emotionally you see
yourself reflected in that way,

all of a sudden that person
becomes more familiar to you.

We have consumed for a very long
time

ourselves outside of our own lens,

that we are still figuring out

what that means.

I think Hollywood is no longer
just a place of entertainment.

I think that the power that
Hollywood holds

is so great that it should
put its power to good use,

which is representation.

Hey, check this one out.

I think nudity and sex

is a really beautiful way to show
things without telling them

and is a vital part of storytelling.

And I actually feel better
doing it

with an intimacy coordinator now.

They have done something
and been involved in something

that is important and I hope
permanent in this industry.

And that's...
Yeah, it's pretty surreal.

It's really...

It feels very good.

# I'm feeling myself
I'm feeling myself

# I'm not gonna lie
I'm not that thing on the shelf

# I'm feeling myself
I'm feeling myself

# Cos I'm doing it better than
anyone else... #

We're just getting started.

All right, fellas.

Getting the cameras into the hands
of the people who want them

and deserve them.

Fuck, yeah, Mom.

Women don't stay silent for ever.

Some women will see some
of these amazing pieces of work

by women and start to kind of centre
themselves in their lives, you know?

But it's not filmmaking's
job to do it.

It's the world's job to centre
female pleasure.

It's the world's job to understand
consent.

You know, it's not female
film-makers' job to teach it.

We got enough to do.

# I'm feeling myself
I'm feeling myself

# I'm not gonna lie
I'm not that thing on the shelf

# I'm feeling myself
I'm feeling myself

# Cos I'm doing it
better than anyone else

# I'm feeling myself
I'm feeling myself

# I'm not gonna lie
I'm not that thing on the shelf

# I'm feeling myself
I'm feeling myself

# Cos I'm doing it
better than anyone else

# Feeling myself

# I'm-I'm feeling myself... #