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Aubrey Plaza Had to Masturbate on Camera in The To Do List

Aubrey Plaza (Instagram).

Aubrey Plaza thought she was going to partake in a simulated masturbation scene in The To Do List (2013). But once she arrived on set, she was asked to actually pleasure herself.

In a recently resurfaced interview with Conan O’Brien, originally part of The To Do List’s promotion tour, Plaza opens up about the scene. 

O’Brien asks Plaza: “There’s a scene where you pleasure yourself, how do you approach that kind of scene? That’s got to be a strange thing to shoot on camera […] I’m just curious, that’s an intense act to simulate on film.”

Plaza proceeds to explain that the masturbation scene wasn’t simulated and that she was asked to touch herself on camera, and in front of the crew, contrary to expectations she had while reading the script. 

“In my head, I envisioned a nice scene where you see my hand slowly go out of frame,” she said.

“That’s what I thought I was going into, but then when I showed up, the camera was mounted on the ceiling, I was in my underwear and a Clinton t-shirt, and there were a bunch of old men smoking, ya know, the crew guys…And then I went and touched myself.”

Firstly, nobody should ever pay you to do anything sexual. You’re doing something you wouldn’t do without payment. There’s no genuine consent involved. This is especially true if it’s your boss asking — there’s a power imbalance. There’s pressure. Your livelihood is at stake. 

Secondly, Plaza portrayed a teenager in The To Do List. The plot, centering on a high school graduate (Plaza) who feels she needs to have more sex before starting college, was questionable enough. But the fact directors and crew (and the world) watched Plaza, dressed up and acting like a teen, actually masturbating, is a sick joke. Right? Especially when ‘teen’ usually rivals ‘lesbian’ for the most searched and watched porn category

The exchange of money and her portraying a teenager is bad enough. But the experience goes against what’s now supposedly practiced in the film industry, including using prosthetics and modesty barriers to ensure the comfort of the actors. 

Plaza’s experience is uncomfortable to read, let alone go through. “I thought I was doing one thing and then when I showed up, it was a whole different thing, it was a full body shot,” she says.

“And I asked the director, ‘What should I do?’ And she said, ‘Masturbate, like it says in the script’.”

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