In 2018, following widespread allegations of abuse of minors by Catholic priests, as well as the conviction of former Olympic gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, legislation was introduced in California to expand the statute of limitation. As well as extending the statute of limitation for reporting childhood sexual assault up until a victim is 40 years old, the Gonzalez’s Assembly Bill 218 also provides a window of three years for the revival of all past claims of sexual assault that might have otherwise expired with the final deadline for filing lawsuits being 31 December 2022.

According to Variety, as part of this window at the end of 2022, Oliva Hussey and Leonard Whiting, the stars of the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli version of Romeo and Juliet filed a lawsuit accusing Paramount Studios, as the distributor of the film, of sexually exploiting them and distributing nude images of adolescent children. The film was a big success at the time of release winning two Oscars, and Hussey and Whiting, now in their seventies, each won a Golden Globe for their performances. 

The suit alleges that Zeffirelli, who died in 2019, assured both actors that there would be no nudity in the film, and that they would wear flesh-coloured undergarments in the bedroom scene. But in the final days of filming, the director allegedly implored them to perform in the nude with body makeup, “or the Picture would fail". Hussey was 15 at the time and Whiting was 16. The complaint alleges the pair have suffered “mental anguish and emotional distress” in the years since and have lost out on job opportunities. Damages being sought are “believed to be in excess of $500m”.

In January 2023, the film Last Tango in Paris celebrated its 50th anniversary. A scene in the film has Paul, played by Marlon Brando, raping Jeanne, played by Maria Schneider, using a stick of butter as a lubricant. Brando was 48 and Schneider 19 at the time the film was shot. In a 2007 interview Schneider, who died in 2011 said that she “felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, both by Marlon and [director Bernardo] Bertolucci”. In a clip from a 2013 press tour interview with Bertolucci, the director described how he and Brando had come up with the idea in the scripted scene, but did not tell Schneider “what was going on, because I wanted her reaction as a girl, not as an actress’ and ‘I wanted her to react humiliated”. Bertolucci later released a statement clarifying that it was a simulated sex scene, that Schneider knew everything because she had read the script, and the only novelty was the idea of the butter.

Also, in January 2023 the director of a Texas high school theatre program was sued by a group of students, who accused the teacher of leading a “sexually abusive environment”. During theatre production rehearsals in 2022 at James Bowie High School in Austin the teacher is alleged to have forced the students “to engage in open-mouth kissing, groping and simulated sexual intercourse,”. These ”intimacy sessions,” the former students say, “were nothing more than choreographed sexual assaults.”

These cases demonstrate that representations of sexual scenes in film, TV or theatre need to be handled with the utmost care and sensitivity. It is important to remember that real people are involved in the making of these scenes and that they are not just actors playing a role. 

As a start, consent should be obtained from all participating individuals and clear guidance should be agreed upon as to what such a scene involves. This is something that TV and film productions are only now seeking to address and which has led to the rise of the role of ‘intimacy coordinators’. This newly emerging role aims to make sure that actors are comfortable, that boundaries are discussed, and every step of a scene is mutually agreed and choreographed. With proper guidance on set and suitable risk assessments in places, the possibility of incidents occurring as outlined above can hopefully be avoided.