HBO Exec Uncomfortably States Network Is Being “Short Of Raped” By ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Big Little Lies’ Budgets

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HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi has apologized for using the term “raped” to describe budget concerns for the second season of Big Little Lies. “Obviously, I am embarrassed by my poor choice of words,” Orsi said, in a statement to Deadline. “We are extremely proud of Big Little Lies and excited for the second season.”

Original story as follows:

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HBO drama chief Francesca Orsi used some questionable terminology to describe the network’s budget issues caused by the upcoming season of Big Little Lies and planned Game of Thrones spin-offs during a recent INTV panel in Jerusalem. The surprise second season renewal of Big Little Lies reportedly came with a significant bump in salary for stars Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, who as THR reports, were able to negotiate significant raises (along with the rest of the women in the cast) based on competing salaries handed out by rival networks.

“From a budget standpoint going into season two of Big Little Lies without any options in place we’ve been… um… short of raped,” Orsi said, according to Deadline.

Considering that both Game of Thrones and Big Little Lies deal with sexual assault, Orsi’s choice of words come off as unnecessarily insensitive. In the latter’s case, rape was part of a major storyline involving Shailene Woodley’s character, and treated sensitively. Meanwhile Thrones has come under fire over the years for everything from frequent, arguably exploitative female nudity, to a controversial rape storyline, to even the lack of female representation behind the camera. In either direction, it was clearly a poor choice of words given the selection of shows — though to be fair, it was a live panel, and an off-the-cuff remark.

The explosive panel continued as Orsi noted that the high costs of additional episodes of Big Little Lies, combined with a slew of potential Game of Thrones spin-offs, could result in financial difficulty if any of the planned Thrones spin-offs make it to series.

“There is a conundrum if we do take off on one of these Game of Thrones spin-offs, where do we start?” Orsi said. “We can’t obviously start with the budget of season 8 but would it be a Game of Thrones season three budget?”

The candid conversation continued as Orsi’s focus shifted to a few of HBO’s streaming competitors. Orsi claimed that Amazon refused to pay for the cast of Australian drama Picnic At Hanging Rock to attend the U.S. premiere. Amazon’s perceived lack of marketing, however, may have benefited HBO.

“I don’t want to out some of the partners and producers that we work with but lately a couple of the prestige pieces that have come through our door are passionately saying they want to set it up at HBO because at Amazon they don’t get some of the benefits in marketing or, on Picnic At Hanging Rock, they can’t travel the cast to the premiere,” Orsi said. “Amazon is not paying for the travel, which is somewhat of a disgrace and they need to know that and others don’t want to get lost in Netflix.”

Where to stream Big Little Lies