How much do extras get paid these days?! The folks doing background work on HBO's upcoming sci-fi western series Westworld were just handed a SAG-AFTRA contract that's enough to make you blush. THR reports that the lurid consent form listed what the actors may be required to do, including "genital-to-genital touching, simulate oral sex with hand-to-genital touching, contort to form a table-like shape while being fully nude, pose on all fours while others who are fully nude ride on your back, [and] ride on someone's back while you are both fully nude.” Other tasks include having their genitals painted or “other assorted acts the project may require.” So, basically anything.
Say what? On the one hand, I'm all about some weird shit happening in Westworld. I saw an extended version of the first trailer at TCA, and the series looks to have a singular vision that holds tremendous promise. And, indeed, it looks weird as fuck. I just didn't realize weird as fuck entailed actual fucking. "Genital-to-genital touching" sounds a lot like a lawyer's spin on pornography, and porn actors get paid a hell of a lot better than background actors. I mean, as long as everybody's a consenting adult, get down with your funky ass contract, but it seems like one of those scenarios that could verge on exploitative.
But like I said, the show itself looks fantastic and this casting contract plays right into the themes of sin and depravity the series is setting out to explore. From executive producers Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight, Person of Interest), Lisa Joy, and J.J. Abrams, the series is based off the 1973 Michael Crichton movie of the same name about a high-tech western-style theme park where the androids go a little nutty after a power surge. The series is described as “a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin.” While at TCA recently, HBO president Michael Lombardo clarified that unlike the original film, the series is from the POV of the robots and the visitors to the park are not the prime focus at all.
Check out the Westworld TV series trailer below. The series premieres in 2016, and stars Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Thandie Newton, James Marsden, and Evan Rachel Wood.
