By Melanie Mayberry, programming editor
If you’re like me, you like steamy sex. Wait a minute. Let me rephrase that. I like quality movies and TV shows that have steamy sex scenes in them. Yeah, that’s better. And you probably agree.
However, despite our likely shared enjoyment of scenes that add some spice to a good drama, more actors are apparently disagreeing.
Jameela Jamil (The Good Place) recently said on a podcast that she turned down an audition for season four of the Netflix serial killer drama, You, because it included a steamy sex scene.
“I don’t do sex scenes. In fact I was supposed to audition for the most recent season of your show and the character was supposed to be quite sexy and I pulled out of the audition because I’m so shy about anything sexy,” she said.
The ‘your show’ comment was in reference to the podcast host, Penn Badgley, the star of You, who happened to reveal several weeks ago that he asked for fewer sex scenes in the show for similar reasons.
“This is actually a decision I made before I took the show. I don’t think I have ever mentioned it publicly,” Badgley said. “One of the main things was, do I want to put myself back on a career path where I’m always playing the romantic lead? Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me. It’s got to the point where I don’t want to do that.”
Jameela told Penn that his comments were an eye-opener for her.
“And then you f***ing came out and was like ‘yeah I’m not doing sex scenes anymore and I’m going to protect myself!” she said. “F***ing hell, I didn’t even know that was a boundary we could draw! That’s fantastic. But then I was like – I should have gone and done the f***ing show!”
There’s no evidence that this sexy shyness is spreading in Hollywood, or even just within the Netflix programming unit. (Netflix has not commented on the two stars’ remarks.) But it will be interesting to see if more actors start demanding less flesh on screen.
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