Protocols for Scenes Involving Nudity
In recent years, our industry has recognized the need for more clear protocols and policies around the communication, staging and production of intimate scenes. To support actors and inform them of their rights of safety and security, SAG AFTRA has developed a helpful guide outlining best practices.
"Work that involves nudity or simulated sex places performers in uniquely vulnerable situations. This work is, and always should be, something a performer is proud of and something they engage in willingly."
To protect a performer’s immediate and ongoing comfort and safety, key factors include ensuring that performers have:
- Appropriate notice of nudity and simulated sex required from a role and audition process;
- An opportunity to provide meaningful, written consent free of pressure or coercion;
- Written riders that outline the parameters of nudity or simulated sex; and
- Safe and secure working conditions that are not detrimental to their health, safety, morals and career.
Intimate Scene Riders
A performer’s performance or depiction in a scene requiring nudity or simulated sex acts is conditioned on their prior written consent, which should take the form of a rider attached to their contract. The rider should:
- Outline descriptions of the intimacy they are agreeing to do on set and how it will be depicted in the final picture.
- Include if the performer will be nude or partially nude, including which intimate body parts will be shown, and the simulated sex acts of each scene.
- Be something agreed to in negotiation between the performer (or their representative) and production.
- Include script pages of relevant scene(s), if available.
A rider provides an opportunity for meaningful, considered consent. Performers should never be pressured or coerced into signing a rider, ensuring they only commit to performances and depictions they are personally comfortable with. A rider must be provided to a performer at least 48 hours prior to call time on the day a scene is to be shot.
Learn MoreOn-Set Protocols
To protect performers as they rehearse and perform these scenes, a producer has the responsibility to ensure the following requirements are followed:
The set must be closed to all persons who are not essential to the filming or rehearsal of a scene, meaning that only those necessary to be physically present in the moment are allowed on set.
People who should not be on set during the production of these scenes include other performers not involved in the specific scenes, unnecessary crew members, financiers and studio executives, location owners and visitors.
Monitors should only be viewed by essential members of production. Best practice is to place monitors in a secure, private location.
It is strictly prohibited for any person on set to make recordings using a personal device, including cellphones, mobile devices and personal cameras. Best practice is to prohibit these devices from being on set.
A cover-up must be provided to any performer in the nude or wearing a modesty garment when they are on set but not rehearsing or shooting a scene, or when there is a pause in rehearsing or shooting the scene.
Learn More
These guidelines strike the right balance between describing the roles and responsibilities of intimacy coordinators while still allowing for flexibility from show-to-show so that the process can be customized to work with each unique production.
More resources for Production
Supporting Survivors in the Post-Production Phase
Creating Safer Sets
Workplace Conduct Policy
Creating Safer Sets
Creating Safer Sets
Employer Resources: The Hollywood Commission
Creating Safer Sets
Intimacy Coordinators: Standards + Protocols
