How much sex on a TV show is too much sex?
This is a question that “House of the Dragon” star Matt Smith wondered regarding his upcoming HBO Max series.
The “Game of Thrones” prequel — out Aug. 21 — is reportedly going to show less intimate scenes, but Smith, 39, still wondered if the 10-episode series has too much.
“You do find yourself asking, ‘Do we need another sex scene?’” the “Doctor Who” star told Rolling Stone recently. “Yeah – slightly too much, if you ask me.”
“The Crown” alum went on: “And they’re like, ‘Yeah, we do.’ I guess you have to ask yourself: ‘What are you doing? Are you representing the books, or are you diluting the books to represent the time [we’re living in]?’”
“And I actually think it’s your job to represent the books truthfully and honestly, as they were written,” Smith said.
“House of the Dragon” co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik previously stated how the new show will not “shy away” from sexual violence.
“If anything, we’re going to shine a light on that aspect,” Sapochnik said of the sexual assaults that often happened in the original series in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter last month.
He added: “You can’t ignore the violence that was perpetrated on women by men in that time. It shouldn’t be downplayed and it shouldn’t be glorified.”
The show’s executive producer Sara Hess also elaborated on the “House of the Dragon” sex scenes earlier this week in a statement to Vanity Fair.
“I’d like to clarify that we do not depict sexual violence in the show,” she said. “I think what our show does, and what I’m proud of, is that we choose to focus on the violence against women that is inherent in a patriarchal system.”
“We handle one instance off-screen, and instead show the aftermath and impact on the victim and the mother of the perpetrator,” Hess explained.
The “Orange Is the New Black” writer went on to note how depicting sexual violence is “tricky.”
“I think the ways we think about it as writers and creators are unique to our particular stories,” she said.