Jesse Williams is baring it all on stage in Take Me Out, but one theatregoer decided to share it with the world.
Video and photos taken from inside the Hayes Theater leaked online Monday (May 9), showing the Grey’s Anatomy star fully naked in the Broadway play about a gay professional baseball player.
The images are not just an invasion of privacy but also against the rules: Take Me Out requires its audience to lock up their phones in felt pouches with magnetic security tags to protect its stars, including Williams, who was nominated for a Tony for the role Monday, and Patrick J. Adams, who also appears nude.
“Everybody makes such a big deal,” Williams said on Watch What Happens Live Monday when asked by host Andy Cohen about the nudity.
“It’s a body. Once you see it you realise it’s whatever.”
But while Williams seems unfazed, the folks behind the scenes of Take Me Out were not taking the breach of propriety lightly. Actors’ Equity Association condemned the recording and leaking “in the strongest possible terms,” saying the leaker knew they were violating the rules.
“At every performance, there is a mutual understanding between the audience and the performers that we are sharing an experience limited to this time and place; that trust makes it possible for us to be exposed both emotionally and physically,” union president Kate Shindle said in a statement Tuesday.
“Trampling on this agreement by capturing and distributing these photographs and videos is both sexual harassment and an appalling breach of consent. It is a violation that impedes our collective ability to tell stories with boldness and bravery.”
The folks at Second Stage Theater, where the show is being staged, were similarly “appalled,” saying they had worked hard to make the theatre a “phone-free space” at all performances.
“Taking naked pictures of anyone without their consent is highly objectionable and can have severe legal consequences,” Second Stage said in a statement. “Posting it on the Internet is a gross and unacceptable violation of trust between the actor and audience forged in the theatre community.”
The theatre said it was actively pursuing takedown requests and asked people not to participate in distribution of the video. Additional staff were being added at the theater to help enforce the policy, it said.
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Williams’ co-star in Take Me Out, was similarly disgusted.
“I’m appalled by the disrespect shown to the actors of our company whose vulnerability on stage [every] night is crucial to Take Me Out,” the Modern Family actor tweeted Tuesday.
“Anyone who applauds or trivializes this behavior has no place in the theater which has always been a safe space for artists & audience members,” Ferguson added. – Tribune News Service
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