Ruth Wilson left The Affair last year because of an extremely toxic work environment

Publish date: 2024-05-14

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In the summer of 2018, Ruth Wilson suddenly exited her popular Showtime series The Affair. It was shocking because the story had not really set that up, and because it seemingly came out of nowhere for Wilson, who had received acclaim and awards for her performance. I remember reading stories where Ruth denied the idea that she was leaving the show because of a pay disparity or because of a beef with one of her costars (she reportedly got along very well with Joshua Jackson). It was always a big mystery, and I think we knew last year that Ruth couldn’t talk about it directly because of an NDA. Now, in a lengthy and disturbing Hollywood Reporter piece, we’re finally learning what was behind Ruth’s abrupt exit. And holy sh-t. You can read the full piece here. Here’s just one part:

That bigger story, it turns out, is much like the Rashomon-style narrative of the show itself, which explored different character perspectives on the same events and let the audience decide who might be the unreliable narrator. The Hollywood Reporter interviewed many of those involved in Wilson’s exit and the events that precipitated it. Many say Ruth Wilson, who is restrained by an NDA, had long wanted to leave the show because of ongoing frustrations with the nudity required of her, friction with showrunner Sarah Treem over the direction of her character, and what she ultimately felt was a “hostile work environment,” later the subject of a previously unreported 2017 investigation by Showtime parent company CBS.

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. 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. 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.”

Those insiders add that Wilson felt Treem, in particular, pressured her to perform such scenes. “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. “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. “It’s things you would think would be coming out of a man’s mouth from the 1950s,” says the source. “The environment was very toxic.”

[From THR]

Yes, a nudity clause in a contract isn’t a blank check to cajole and manipulate actors into dropping their kits in scene after scene. But this part is only one piece of the larger problems on The Affair set – there was a ton of back-and-forth and Showtime/CBS bureaucracy in investigating Ruth’s complaints and the complaints of other people on the show. When actors were doing nude scenes or sex scenes, producers weren’t closing down the sets or limiting the number of people who could watch the monitors. Then one of the producer-directors had nude photos of one of the actors on his phone and he was showing those photos to other people at a bar. There were endless problems with who got to investigate (the showrunner, Showtime or CBS) and on and on. The whole show sounds like it was utterly dysfunctional and toxic for the past three years. Also, Sarah Treem sounds like an absolute monster to work with.

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Photos courtesy of Showtime.

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