‘Hollywood’ Initially Planned to Show Full-Frontal Nudity From Male Stars

Hollywood has its fair share of sex. After all, two of the characters are sex workers. But Ryan Murphy’s hit Netflix series was originally planned to be much more raunchy. In an early draft of the script, the male starts of Hollywood were going to show full-frontal nudity in the series, Cinema Blend reports.

During the Hollywood cast reunion livestream on Stars In The House, the actors revealed that early on, they were fitted for prosthetics for their nude scenes. Both Jeremy Pope — who plays screenwriter Archie — and David Corenswet — who plays actor Jack Costello — play characters who supplement their income as sex workers, taking their clients to Dreamland under the guise of working at a gas station. Both Pope and Corenswet opened up about preparing for the nude scenes with prosthetics, and revealed they initially misunderstood the situation.

“Most of us said ‘Yes,’ then we got Episodes 1 and 2,” Pope said. “I was like ‘Ooo, does Archie get beat up? What am I getting?’ Then I started putting the pieces together of, ‘Oh, we’re not talking about anything above the waist of a prosthetic.”

Corenswet also got the wrong idea about the prosthetics, being under the impression he was getting fitted for something on his face. None of the prosthetics were put to use, though. If you were hoping to see the X-rated version of Hollywood, you’re out of luck — the show scrapped the full-nude scenes.

Darren Criss (director Raymond Ainsley) shared on the livestream that he was shocked by his first read-through of the script because of how sexual it was.  “There’s no fucking numbers on the dial anymore for how raunchy it was,” he recalled. “They dialed it back severely to focus more on the heart and the hope…There was shit I clutched my pearls at.”

Nude scenes or not, Hollywood has been a huge hit since it debuted on Netflix May 1. The seven-episode limited series has consistently been on the Netflix Top 10 list and is currently seated at number 2. Hollywood follows marginalized communities during the Golden Age of Hollywood and reimagines what history would be like if they had been given a fair shot at success. The series also stars Holland Taylor, Dylan McDermott, Queen Latifah, Maude Apatow, Samara Weaving, Patti LuPone, Jim Parsons, Jake Picking, Joe Mantello and Laura Harrier.

Stream Hollywood on Netflix