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

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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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64 Responses to “Ruth Wilson left ‘The Affair’ last year because of an extremely toxic work environment”

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  1. Lala11_7 says:

    Between THIS horror…what went down with Frankie Shaw being predatory on “SMILF”…the crap that went down on “Bull”…what happened on “Survivor” this season and everything ELSE that went down at CBS …which is the common thread here…CBS is just a venerable cornucopia of sexual predatory behavior towards women… I can only IMAGINE the crap that’s gone down that we know NOTHING about….

    • bub244 says:

      The Survivor thing was so upsetting I couldn’t watch the second half of the season. The fact that a woman was repeatedly harassed ON CAMERA and no-one did anything is so deeply disturbing to me.

    • smcollins says:

      As soon as I saw that CBS is the parent company for Showtime I thought “Well, there you go, say no more because I have no doubt it was a toxic work environment.” And now I love that Ruth has turned up on HBO, a kind of F U to Showtime (or at least that’s how I choose to see it).

      * I know hbo doesn’t have the best track record but it doesn’t seem to be on this consistent level of toxicity

      • Nina says:

        CBS was led, for decades, by a sexual predator. That has the tendency to permeate throughout an organization — executives surround themselves with people who are like them. So even with the ouster of Les Moonves, the sexist, predatory behavior is ingrained in the company. It will take years and years of concerted effort to root that out.

    • BlueSky says:

      Don’t forget “The Chi” as well where an actress was so afraid of Jason Mitchell being overly aggressive that she had to bring her fiancé to the set. She left the show but he continued on with his predatory behavior until he was finally fired.
      The sad part is that “The Chi”, SMILF, and the affair had female show runners and women STILL didn’t feel safe.

      • Lala11_7 says:

        @BlueSky…the horror that went down on the set of “The Chi”…FOREVA…is the reason why Lena Waithe does not even EXIST in my world…PERIOD!

      • Valiantly Varnished says:

        The Chi and Lena Waithe’s complicity in what went down is why I will forever give her and her work the side eye.

      • tealily says:

        Wow, I’d missed this story completely.

      • BCity says:

        I was floored when the entire cliff-hanger finale revolved around him! Clearly they didn’t plan on firing him until their hand was forced.

  2. OriginalRose says:

    oh no, I’d heard from my in laws that this was a good show and I was thinking of watching it but I just would not be able to now, knowing that she felt uncomfortable filming it. It’s so gross that there’s a contractual nudity clause!

    Anyway, maybe it freed her up for better things like His Dark Materials, she’s excellent in that

    • Dani says:

      It’s not that great. The first season was EXCELLENT and really captivated you, the second was good bordering okay, had to force myself to finish the season. I couldn’t get through the first episode of the third season. Not sure what went wrong because they had such good characters/actors and story lines but it seemed to get too messy and complicated with minor characters for no reason.

      • Tourmaline says:

        Same, well I sped through the first 2 seasons and then right from the start of the 3rd season I hit a wall and didn’t care about the show any more.

  3. Originaltessa says:

    I can see how being nude and having to do love scenes ALL the time would really start to be daunting and humiliating. Like, am I a porn star or an actress? And why
    must I be naked six times every episode? Emilia Clark talked about this, but I think they tried to work with her about the gratuitous nudity. It all seems awful.

  4. Deanne says:

    This is horrifying and abusive and the fact that she’s prevented from speaking about it due to an NDA is terrible. This protects the show runner, who sounds like a complete nightmare. I can’t imagine having to work under those conditions.

  5. theothercleo says:

    The entire article made me sick. The constant pressure to be naked, the way Ruth’s bodydouble was treated, the disgusting director at the bar,the ridiculous email Treem sent to the crew (“we want to keep that sexy,sexy stuff on-screen”)… I found the last paragraph horrific. After Ruth Wilson managed to exit the show,Treem wrote a violent rape scene for her character and had to be talked out of it by Showtime executives. She actually fought them to keep the scene in. It just shows that she learned nothing and just striked me as an incredibly messed up way to punish Wilson (“oh you did not like that rapey scene in season 2? Well look what happens when you complain).
    I feel so sorry for Ruth Wilson.

    • OriginalRose says:

      i Just finished reading the article too, Treem sounds malicious and just awful! Poor Ruth, i hate NDAs they’re the worst.

    • Tourmaline says:

      Yep, all this. What is Sarah Treem up to now? This better hurt her career if there is any justice.

      Ruth Wilson was the best thing about that show, she elevated it right from the start and the way Treem treated her is appalling.

      • kellybean says:

        I’ve loved this show(with the exception of the third season) since the beginning. It’s definitely devolved into borderline soap opera meets prestige porn. Ruth/Allison’s departure and final episodes just tore my heart out. To hear what she went through makes me sense. She’s an amazing talent and person for standing up for her double. I didn’t think I could love Joshua Jackson anymore than I did and then I heard last year that he supported Ruth through the whole ordeal.

        The fact that Treem wanted Allison to get raped, in addition to her narrative in the final season, makes me beyond furious. I really developed an attachment to her character and nobody deserves that narrative as a form of punishment .There is something seriously wrong with Treem. Like, sick and not just a horrible human. I feel that way about Gillian Flynn re. twisted in a way that goes beyond just “dark” or “edgy.”

  6. Jess says:

    I binged watched that show a few months ago and she’s amazing in it, Joshua Jackson as well, they have amazing chemistry. I was so disappointed in her leaving and it was definitely abrupt, I wanted more for her character, and Joshua’s, but now it makes sense. Good for her for standing up for herself and leaving that toxic environment.

    Ruth is also great in His Dark Materials, worth checking out if you need a new show.

    • Starkille says:

      She really is. When I first saw that she’d been cast in His Dark Materials I was quite disappointed because I thought it was a terrible miscast, but I’ve been watching the series and she’s actually pretty much perfect in the part, so I was happy to have been so off-base.

  7. Betsy says:

    I’ve begun to feel uncomfortable watching nude scenes because other than here, I don’t read any celebrity/movie stuff and I’m just afraid that I’m going watching someone doing something that was against their will and it just makes me sick.

    • Sean says:

      This is how I now feel about nude scenes as well. Ever since reading about how actors can be coerced into performing them and considering how gratuitous they can be, I’m just uncomfortable with watching them because you never know the conditions they were filmed under.

    • Allergy says:

      I’m tired of all fake-humping in TV and movies in general. It just looks stupid not sexy at all.

      • tealily says:

        Yeah. 9 times out of 10 it’s just gratuitous. A cut to them post-coital would be enough.

      • Call_me_al says:

        Agreed, except for Outlander. The actors always talk about their collaborative and supportive work environment. The nudity and sex is strategic.

    • Tourmaline says:

      Yep and that now actresses in order to perform in ‘prestige’ television series are pressured to go along with this gratuitous crap because it’s a expectation that if you pay for those kinds of series you are going to see plenty of (to use an olden days phrase), T and A, explicit content. Almost always of the female variety of course. It’s just so regressive yet wrapped up in edgy progressive packaging. I’m glad THR did this article and is shining a light on it all.

  8. Eribra says:

    I’ve never seen this show but I remember her from Luther- she was sexy as hell and never naked. I didn’t care if she was the bad guy, I was rooting for her and luther to be a couple.

    • Mumbles says:

      Ruth Wilson was so good in “Luther” that it takes me a while to realize that she doesn’t always play sociopathic geniuses.

      It is so infuriating when women like Treem gain positions of power and then just go along with the patriarchy. And it happens everywhere. Businesses, law firms, academia, tech.

      When you read the article, one surprising detail is that of all people to raise the alarm about this toxic environment, it was Lena Dunham and Jenni Conner.

  9. A says:

    I’m so glad Ruth’s side of the story came out. My heart goes out to anyone who is forced to suffer in silence. We will only see real change when people are allowed to talk about their mistreatment. NDA be damned!

  10. Lindy says:

    Another plug for her work so far in His Dark Materials. As a huuuuuuuge fan of the books for a very long time, I hated the awful movie with Nicole Kidman and was very cautiously hopeful about this series. They’re doing a wonderful job, and Wilson is fantastic.

    • Anners says:

      Good to know! Loved the books, loathed the movies. Nicole Kidman is a terrible actress and (for me) is the weakest link in every single movie she’s in. I still don’t understand how she was cast in BLL as Celeste.

  11. Valiantly Varnished says:

    This is even worse than I thought. I only started watching the show this past Fall and then I’d read that Ruth left the show and there was a lot of rumbling around why. And so I stopped. First off – she was the best thing on that show and second – it felt gross to continue to watch it. Im glad Ruth extricated herself from that show and Im glad the truth is now coming out. There were also rumors that Joshua Jackson left the show because Ruth left the show and if that’s true then good for him for standing by her.

  12. Jan080 says:

    Ugh. Hollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole is a cesspool of deviant behavior.

  13. Chaine says:

    What makes it even more sad is that this was a high-quality show with an engrossing plot and amazing actors and there was absolutely no need for any nudity that I can recall. The last season I watched was the one with the French professor character, and I felt that all of her nude scenes were entirely unnecessary.

    • lucy2 says:

      I bailed during that season. I grew to really dislike the show, mainly because I hated the Noah character so much, and the writers clearly didn’t. Given the toxic environment, it makes more sense now.
      I’m so sorry Ruth and others had to suffer through this. I’m glad it came out, and the awful people got exposed, and Ruth has moved on to bigger and better things.

    • Tourmaline says:

      Yes that was the season that I bailed out on too. Treem really failed to deliver on any promise the series had based on the first two seasons.

  14. rosamund12 says:

    HBO has had some of the most extreme sex and nudity scenes ever aired, as far back as SATC. I feel so bad for the actresses. You bust your ass trying to break into the business, and you land a big break on an HBO drama! Only there’s just this one catch…. So your choice is between certain success and future roles, financial security, celebrity …. or keeping your clothes on and getting back in line. Surely most will just grit their teeth and go through with it. Which sucks.

  15. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    She’s an amazingly sexy women. One close-up and one word, and I’m in. Fully clothed. On top of her original beauty, she’s an exemplary actor. Shame on our Paleolithic industries and mindsets. If you have to strategically place three dragons or pillows, and it frustrates you, you’re in the wrong genre. Guess what? The porn industry could use better directing and dialogue. Go. Be your best.

  16. Stef says:

    I’ve been waiting for her side of the story to come out, had no idea it was this bad for her. She’s a phenomenal actress and was my favourite character on the show. She’s magnetic!

    I liked how the show ended when they wrapped it up in the finale this year. Her departure was shocking and sudden but I think the script used her death on the show to wrap up all the lose ends in one last season. I look forward to seeing Ruth in lots of good stuff to come.

    Sarah Treem seems like a real Cee U Next Tuesday. Uh.

  17. stormsmama says:

    “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.”

    GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT OK!!!!!!!!!!!

  18. classicmoviecat says:

    I love Ruth Wilson since her Jane Eyre days. She was the best Jane, in my opinion.
    It’s all upside down. The abusers staying, and the victims having to leave. I’m glad Ruth’s career wasn’t affected by that, but for some people it never picks up steam again after they have to leave.
    I was just listening to the catch and kill podcast and this is what’s on my mind right now.

  19. SM says:

    Wow. It just shows that women in the position of power can be real bitches abusing their power. and it is particularly sad, since we do need to support each other. Well, good for Ruth for not sticking and leaving the show anyway then, I am sure it bugged Treem to the hell and back, she probably thought that as a creator she will gather way anyway and strong arm Ruth to submit to her wishes.

  20. L4frimaire says:

    Read the article and it was utterly appalling how disrespected the actresses were on this program. It really is disgusting. These are seasoned actors with many credits under their belt, but the production team felt like they could treat them like a frat house joke. Major respect to Ruth Wilson and the rest of the cast who stood up. And women can be just as exploitative as men when it suits them, regardless of what that show runner says. And Lena Dunham factoring in is just wild.

    • Tourmaline says:

      The whole Lena Dunham cameo in the THR story really put the whole thing over the proverbial edge

    • Tiffany :) says:

      Honestly, I can’t believe that the director was walking around showing a photo of nude actors taken from a closed set. That seems like it could be legally actionable. Such predatory behavior.

      Is the toxic director working on a new project now? I feel like any actors on his projects need to be warned, as do the people hiring him.

      • Lowrider says:

        “Honestly, I can’t believe that the director was walking around showing a photo of nude actors taken from a closed set. ”

        Something similar happened to Thandie Newton. A director/producer shows a sex scene of hers at his hollywood parties for entertainment.

      • Lipreng says:

        It wasn’t a closed set. They weren’t closing the set down like they should have. Yes, Showtime is still giving this man work on other shows like Shameless!

  21. Miriam says:

    @BLUESKY

    “Don’t forget “The Chi” as well where an actress was so afraid of Jason Mitchell being overly aggressive that she had to bring her fiancé to the set. She left the show but he continued on with his predatory behavior until he was finally fired.
    The sad part is that “The Chi”, SMILF, and the affair had female show runners and women STILL didn’t feel safe”

    You’re so right! imagine being the prominent lead actress and still not getting respected!!😡

    What makes it worst is the complacency from other females like lena Dunham and that producer. They are likely to be the focus
    of the another wave of #Metoo which will hopefully expose those complicit in the abuse of power

  22. KBeth says:

    This is so disgusting.
    Ruth Wilson is incredibly talented, loved her in Luther.

  23. tealily says:

    I haven’t watched The Affair yet, but I love Ruth Wilson from her various roles in British dramas over the years, and it’s been on my list. I hadn’t even realized she’d left. Now I hesitate to even start it.

    • Mtec says:

      I love her too, she’s amazingly talented, and like others have called her “magnetic” in the role. It’s awful to hear what she went through. The first season was so good, but now I feel icky having watched the later ones. I remember that rapey scene, with her character and Dominic West’s, mentioned in the article. I had no idea Ruth was so against it for her character, but I remember while watching it that I also felt it was off for both characters and really made West’s character irredeemable in my eyes. I stopped watching soon after.

  24. Mo says:

    Please don’t leave out Lena Dunham’s role in all this. It was a blind item in her Lenny letter that brought this all out into the open. Yeah, Lena didn’t write the blind item, but it had information directly coming from her and was published in her newsletter.

    So people may hate on Lena all the time, but she (and the women of Girls) were major whisteblowers and stood up for the actresses on The Affair in a big way. When women watch out for each other like this, it should be noted and rewarded.

    • Mtec says:

      It depends on who’s account of the meeting you wanna believe. Apparently, according to Cleta Ellington, who was an assistant director on the show and also at that meeting with them and Reiner, Jenni Konner left her out of the article and she says it was Lena who was egging on the sexist conversation that prompted Reiner to show them the picture with the castmember and the penis to show Lena that they do show male nudity on the show. Ellington is quoted saying she thought it was “inexplicable” for Jenni to “erase” her out of the conversation and that Lena, “was the provocateur in the conversation.” Not saying Reiner is innocent; it’s really shady he held onto that picture and showed it to people, or even took it in the first place. But given Lena’s and Jenni’s history, I wouldn’t be too quick to give them credit or reward them for anything feminist.

  25. Wilma says:

    Maura Tierney has shaded Ruth low key by saying in interviews that she has no problem doing what the writers and directors say she should do because “that’s her job as an actress”.

    Sarah Treem is a horrible person who believes that she has so much talent in writing that she can pretty much do whatever she wants cause she’s serving the art.
    The fact that she doesn’t confront her own misogyny as a woman says everything I need to know about her.

  26. Marigold says:

    Maybe it’s because I’m getting old or something, but at 45, I find the overt sexuality in television so exhausting. My husband has reached that point, too. We were up late in the living room. He was watching some show (The Boys, I think?) and i was reading on my Kindle. He ffw’d through a sex scene and then I noticed he did it again later in the episode. When he saw me noticing, he just said, “I mean, if I wanted porn, I’d just get online. It’s ridiculous.”

    It HAS gotten ridiculous, and it’s not even artful or story-related. I don’t know if you guys remember season one of Spartacus, but part of the rampant and graphic sex in that show laid a foundation of dread and disgust in the series. The rape and the violent abuse of female slaves was horrifying, and they didn’t try to make it anything else. They demonstrated the rot and suffering it caused. The debauchery was gluttonous and grotesque. It wasn’t purely titillating and some of it was absolutely the opposite on purpose. It was…a lot…but it actually contributed to the show. Later seasons, it became full-on porn for the spectacle of it, but it was originally done strategically and artfully enough to tell you really deep things about the people you were watching. I was actually impressed. Then they went and ruined it.

    On television shows today, it’s just entirely gratuitous. It’s like there have to be a certain number of nipple shots per episode or they think people won’t watch. It just comes in out of nowhere with absolutely no narrative point to make…because it’s been 6 minutes since you saw the last sexualized bit of skin, and they figure you wanted to see some more about now. Game of Thrones would have been a much better program if they’d cut 50% of the nude scenes out and treated rape like it had consequences. There have been multiple times I watched a series and thought, “the sex added nothing to this show and only prevented me from encouraging my kid to watch it.”

    And how many times do we need to hear actresses tell us stories like these of coercion and discomfort before we just stop watching stuff with that kind of content? I don’t know. I really don’t know where the line is. I just know I’m no longer able to see sex scenes on TV without it interrupting my enjoyment of the show because all this ugly baggage comes up with it. It’s no longer art at that point. It’s just abuse.

  27. JULIE ju i says:

    Whole show was a circle jerk for treem. She was the one that called for another woman to be sexually assaulted and show gratuitous nudity. Not a Weinstein or a Ratner. The last season was so bad I just quit.