3 ms·

Romeo and Juliet Olivia Hussey and L. Whiting sue over 1968 film's sexual abuse

2 points by carabiner 4y ago

jfengel 4y ago
I'm not a fan of nudity in serious film or stage. There is no way to not be upstaged by your own body. No matter how well you portray your character, the audience is aware that they are looking at the actor's body, not the characters. This scene in particular had been staged for hundreds of years without nudity. Yes, nudity is "true" to the scene, but it's inevitably going to disrupt the scene as well. Whatever you gain from visualizing the characters being naked and vulnerable to each other is lost by the fourth-wall breaking of naked actors. There are scenes where that vulnerability is necessary to tell the story, but you have to ask whether that story is really worth telling. It may simply not be possible to tell the story you want to tell. Perhaps you want to do it with animation. Or you want to trot out the Hollywood L-shaped sheets -- the ones that are longer on the woman's side than on the man's. They're also distracting, but not as distracting as the audience wondering if they're allowed to be looking at a 16-year-old's breasts instead of listening to some of the greatest dialogue ever written. It reminds me of the risks we take doing combat. If the audience is worried for my safety, then they're not watching the show. On stage, we deliberately avoid things that look too dangerous, even if they're safe, because I don't want the audience thinking about me. There are shows in which the combat is a deliberately stylized athletic event, and the audience is there to admire the athletic skill rather than the story, but this is a deliberate choice and incorporated into the overall entertainment. Any nudity -- any romantic scene -- is inherently risky. Actors have been abused for decades, and they're starting to fight back. It's not that they don't do it, but they talk about it beforehand, and deliberately seek to make actors feel they can speak out when they're not comfortable. This is on my mind right now: I've got an intimate scene to rehearse tonight. It's not much; it's likely just a kiss. I'm fairly certain my scene partner will feel safe with anything the director is likely to want from us. But it's important that we're making time for this and ensuring that it's OK, because for some people it isn't. Reading the article, in which minors were rushed into a scene at the last minute despite promises otherwise -- that is the reason we have an intimacy choreographer helping us tonight.

2 points by carabiner 4y ago

I'm not a fan of nudity in serious film or stage. There is no way to not be upstaged by your own body. No matter how well you portray your character, the audience is aware that they are looking at the actor's body, not the characters. This scene in particular had been staged for hundreds of years without nudity. Yes, nudity is "true" to the scene, but it's inevitably going to disrupt the scene as well. Whatever you gain from visualizing the characters being naked and vulnerable to each other is lost by the fourth-wall breaking of naked actors. There are scenes where that vulnerability is necessary to tell the story, but you have to ask whether that story is really worth telling. It may simply not be possible to tell the story you want to tell. Perhaps you want to do it with animation. Or you want to trot out the Hollywood L-shaped sheets -- the ones that are longer on the woman's side than on the man's. They're also distracting, but not as distracting as the audience wondering if they're allowed to be looking at a 16-year-old's breasts instead of listening to some of the greatest dialogue ever written. It reminds me of the risks we take doing combat. If the audience is worried for my safety, then they're not watching the show. On stage, we deliberately avoid things that look too dangerous, even if they're safe, because I don't want the audience thinking about me. There are shows in which the combat is a deliberately stylized athletic event, and the audience is there to admire the athletic skill rather than the story, but this is a deliberate choice and incorporated into the overall entertainment. Any nudity -- any romantic scene -- is inherently risky. Actors have been abused for decades, and they're starting to fight back. It's not that they don't do it, but they talk about it beforehand, and deliberately seek to make actors feel they can speak out when they're not comfortable. This is on my mind right now: I've got an intimate scene to rehearse tonight. It's not much; it's likely just a kiss. I'm fairly certain my scene partner will feel safe with anything the director is likely to want from us. But it's important that we're making time for this and ensuring that it's OK, because for some people it isn't. Reading the article, in which minors were rushed into a scene at the last minute despite promises otherwise -- that is the reason we have an intimacy choreographer helping us tonight.