The Creator Of “The Affair” Responded To The Allegations That She Pressured Ruth Wilson To Get Naked
Last week, The Hollywood Reporter published a story which exposed the reason for why Ruth Wilson decided she very much wanted nothing more to do with the Showtime series The Affair. Ruth left before the show’s final season and said that she’d love to talk about why she left, but couldn’t due to an NDA. THR spoke to numerous sources, and they all claimed Ruth wanted out because she was sick of being pressured to take her clothes off. One of the allegations made was that Sarah Treem, creator, director, and executive producer of The Affair, was the ringleader. Sarah has responded to the allegations, and she would like us all to know that she really doesn’t think THR accurately told her side of the story.
Sarah, seen above sandwiched between Ruth Wilson and Joshua Jackson, wrote a rebuttal that was published by Deadline. One source told THR:
“Over and over again, I witnessed Sarah Treem try to cajole actors to get naked even if they were uncomfortable or not contractually obligated to.”
THR also pointed out that Ruth had signed a nudity clause in her contract agreeing to get naked, but that any time a performer doesn’t want to, they can say no. THR also reported an alleged story in which frequent The Affair director Jeffrey Reiner was given little more than a slap on the wrist from Sarah for various workplace no-nos. Like allegedly saving – and flashing around – a production photo on his phone featuring Maura Tierney with a stunt penis next to her face, and allegedly begging Lena Dunham to meet one-on-one with Ruth to convince her to show her “vag.” Sarah did get to speak to The Hollywood Reporter for their piece, and she had this to say:
“I would never say those things to an actor. That’s not who I am. I am not a manipulative person, and I’ve always been a feminist. I did everything I could think of to make [Wilson] feel comfortable with these scenes. I have devoted my entire professional life to writing about and speaking to women’s issues, women’s causes, women’s empowerment and creating strong, complex roles for women in theater and in Hollywood, on and offscreen. It’s what I think about, what I care about, it’s what drives my life and work.
The reason I even created The Affair was to illuminate how the female experience of moving through the world is so different from the male one, it’s like speaking a second language. The idea that I would ever cultivate an unsafe environment or harass a woman on one of my shows is utterly ridiculous and lacks a grounding in reality.”
But several sources told THR that they witnessed manipulation on set. Which brings us to Sarah’s rebuttal. Sarah said that THR failed to speak to upper management and other producers on the show, and accused them of only speaking to off-the-record sources. She also said that Ruth’s character was based on her own past trauma, and that sex scenes were always going to be pivotal to her character arc. She added that all sex scenes were written to be consensual (as opposed to the “rapey” sex scenes described by THR’s sources).
And then there’s the nudity pressure allegation. Sarah had this to say:
“On a continuous basis throughout Ruth’s time on the show, I tried to protect her and shoot sex scenes safely and respectfully…In the third episode, I took out a sex scene she objected to. In the fourth episode, we rehearsed a sex scene with doubles, story-boarded it and then showed it to the actors for their approval before we shot it. In the fifth episode, we showed Ruth a cut of a sex scene she was unsure about and she approved it before we aired it. In the ninth episode, she objected to a sex scene, but I needed it to tell the story, so a body-double was brought in to shoot the entire scene.”
Eventually Ruth left the show, as we all know. And Sarah described the initial circumstances as being not nearly as dramatic as we’ve been lead to believe.
“Ruth had asked to leave before shooting wrapped to perform in Hedda Gabler on stage, which was creatively problematic for the show, but she was really excited about the project, so I wrote her out of the season early.”
As for Jeffrey Reiner, Sarah said she begged Showtime to shut down production on The Affair after Jenni Konner published a blind item about Jeffrey and Lena on the now-defunct Lenny Letter. Sarah said she wanted to hold sensitivity training and apologize to cast and crew, but that Showtime said they’d handle it. Their version of “handling it,” according to Sarah, was to have Ruth written out of the show. Sarah said Ruth’s character’s was violently murdered because Sarah wanted to send a message about domestic violence.
We can’t get Ruth’s rebuttal to all of this, because that pesky NDA is getting in the way. And Showtime has yet to comment on Sarah throwing them under the bus. We also haven’t heard from Ruth’s main scene partner, Dominic West. I feel like he could probably help us decide who is telling the truth here. Like, Dominic, help us out here. Did you ever show up for a sex scene and were told by Sarah, “Eh, you could probably keep all yoru clothes on. It’s not your tits I want to see.”
Pic: Wenn.com