20, 2016, between Jeffrey Reiner, an executive producer and frequent director on the The Affair, and Girls creator Lena Dunham. Wilson’s opportunity to extricate herself from the show ultimately came about after a chance meeting Sept. (Separately, Wilson’s body double sued Showtime in 2017, saying she was fired after confronting a male assistant director for describing her on a call sheet as “Alison Sexytime Double.” The case was settled.) Instead, a body double stepped in for part of it. “Ruth was very unamused by it.” Treem says that it was written to be a consensual sex scene but that Wilson didn’t agree with the character’s choice. In one instance in the second season, Wilson declined to shoot an aggressive sex scene that involved her being pushed up against a tree at a yoga retreat by co-star Dominic West. Insiders attribute many of these issues to the fact that Showtime did not begin employing an intimacy coordinator, an on-set job that’s become more common in the #MeToo era, until the show’s final season. Another on-set source reveals that there was a complaint raised after a monitor was left on during an on-location shoot that made a sex scene visible to someone not involved with the production. For example, “There sometimes were people there who didn’t need to be, or the monitor was in plain view,” explains one. Still, insiders cite a number of issues that created discomfort with some of the cast and crew. 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.” 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. “It’s what I think about, what I care about, it’s what drives my life and work.
“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,” says Treem.
I am not a manipulative person, and I’ve always been a feminist,” she says, noting that she “did everything I could think of to make feel comfortable with these scenes.” Treem says that her accommodations for the actress included cutting certain scenes the actress was uncomfortable with, storyboarding scenes ahead of time and showing her cuts of scenes for her to approve before they aired. “I would never say those things to an actor. Treem, however, denies she ever pressured performers. “It’s things you would think would be coming out of a man’s mouth from the 1950s,” says the source.
“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.” According to this individual, that coaxing took the form of pressuring actresses by telling them, “Everyone is waiting for you,” or “You look beautiful,” to ease any insecurities they may have had. “There was a culture problem at the show from the very beginning and a tone-deafness from Sarah Treem about recognizing the position she was putting actors in,” says one source with firsthand knowledge of the production. Those insiders add that Wilson felt Treem, in particular, pressured her to perform such scenes. Another source overheard Wilson ask on set, referring to a male co-star, “Why do you need to see me and not more of him?” Wilson had, of course, signed a nudity waiver when she tested for the pilot, but a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson notes that performers must still “provide meaningful consent and be treated with respect and dignity during production.” Sources say Wilson expressed her concerns repeatedly only to receive push-back and be labeled “difficult.” Sources, many of whom declined to speak on the record, say Wilson was often asked to be unclothed in scenes where there seemed to be no clear creative rationale for the nudity other than for it to be “titillating,” as one person involved with the production puts it. While Wilson was said to have understood that signing on to an adult drama at Showtime called The Affair would likely involve some disrobing, she ultimately took issue with the frequency and nature of certain nude scenes.