Background players on HBO’s Westworld have had to sign consent forms agreeing to participate in “graphic sexual situations,” including “genital-to-genital touching” and posing “on all fours while others who are fully nude ride on your back.” SAG-AFTRA said it will have a representative on the set today to monitor the situation when the sex
scene is being shot.
The consent agreement was given to an unknown number of extras by Central Casting, which is casting the show’s background players. It states: “This document serves to inform you that this project will require you to be fully nude and/or witness others fully nude and
participate in graphic sexual situations. By accepting this Project assignment, you may be required to do any of the following: appear fully nude; wear a pubic hair patch; perform genital-to-genital touching; have your genitals painted; 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; ride on someone’s back while you are both fully nude; and other assorted acts the Project may require. The Project will also include language and sexual situations that some may consider personally objectionable or uncomfortable.”
SAG-AFTRA is telling its member that the agreement may be unenforceable if it conflicts with the terms of the union’s Television Agreement, which provides that consent to appear in scenes requiring nudity or sex acts may be withdrawn at any time; that the set must be closed to anyone not having business with the production, and that no still photography may be authorized without the consent of the background actor.
The union said that it will a representative on the set Wednesday “to answer any questions.”