Broadway’s Second Stage Theater has responded to those leaked Jesse Williams nudes.
Currently home to Williams’ “Take Me Out’ play, the theater said it was “appalled” that a spectator broke its sealed-phone policy and shared the eye-opening footage on social media.
“Taking naked pictures of anyone without their consent is highly objectionable and can have severe legal consequences,” the theater said in a statement shared on Instagram Tuesday. “Posting it on the internet is a gross and unacceptable violation of trust between the actor and audience forged in the theater community.”
The theater is also asking that no one else distribute the viral shots.
The Actors’ Equity Association also released a statement, outwardly calling the recording “sexual harassment and an appalling breach of consent.”
“As actors, we regularly agree to be vulnerable onstage in order to tell difficult and challenging stories, Kate Shindle, president of the association, said. “This does not mean that we agree to have those vulnerable moments widely shared by anyone who feels like sneaking a recording device into the theater. Whoever did this knew not only that they were filming actors without their consent, but also that they were explicitly violating the theater’s prohibition on recording and distribution.
“At every performance, there is a mutual understanding between the audience and the performers that we are sharing an experience limited to this time and place; that trust makes it possible for us to be exposed both emotionally and physically,” she continued.
But the damage may already be done. As The Post reported Monday, fans had a field day with the sight of Williams’ full-frontal on Twitter.
The views were possibly first posted by the NSFW site GayBlog.ca.
The Post has reached out to Williams’ reps for comment.
However, Williams, 40, didn’t seem concerned about nudity in general on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” on Monday night.
“It’s a body — once you see it, you realize it’s whatever, it’s a body,” Williams said alongside co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, 46. “I just have to make it not that big of a deal.”
When Cohen questioned whether it helps when an actor can “feel good” about their body before baring all on stage, Jesse replied with a smile: “I would imagine so — I don’t, so I don’t know.”