An actor’s job is to portray another person, perhaps a facet of humanity, and that comes with all sorts of messiness and emotionally challenging hurdles, some of which they may not actually feel comfortable doing. When it comes to one of the more intimate sides of acting, actress Jameela Jamil made it very clear that was not something she wanted to do.
Sex scenes are a challenging part of acting, and not everyone is comfortable taking them on. In fact, the industry has only just cottoned onto the issues that actors face during them in recent years, and has finally started adopting the practice of having an intimacy coordinator on set to ensure that actors are comfortable, that everything is done with consent, and that no one feels pressured. Even with this in place, not every actor will be on board as Jamil has recently stated.
The Good Place actress has always been very vocal about what she will and will not tolerate and in a recent podcast, Podcrushed, hosted by Penn Badgley, she was very clear about not wanting to do sex scenes.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been someone who would have enjoyed objectifying myself, personally. But that’s also because I have so much deep, like, childhood sexual trauma stuff. So I think that was never in the cards for me. You know, I still wear the… like, the little skirt or the busty top, but like, occasionally. But generally, I feel quite protective of myself in that way. Like, I don’t do sex scenes.”
She discussed how she was actually up for an audition for Badgley’s You series on Netflix but then turned it down, saying, “In fact, I was supposed to audition for the most recent season of your show. My character was supposed to be quite sexy, and I pulled out of the audition because I am so shy about anything sexy that I can’t.”
Jamil is not alone in this, with Badgley having asked for less intimate scenes in the latest season of You citing his own marriage as the reason for wanting to cut back. In his podcast, he said, “Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me,” when explaining why he asked the series creator “to go from 100 to zero.”
Unfortunately, this news had not reached Jamil before her audition, with the actress telling Badgley, “And then you f***ing came out and was like, ‘yeah, I’m not doing sex scenes anymore’. And I was like, I didn’t even know that was a boundary that we could draw. But then I was like, I should have gone and done the f***ing show.”
It is perfectly healthy for actors to set boundaries for themselves, and Jamil and Badgley are by no means the first actors to request no sex scenes. It is becoming harder, however, as it feels as more and more shows add them to keep audiences titillated.
Published: May 7, 2023 09:25 pm