Last week, Jason Isaacs made headlines after saying that there was a “double standard” around male and female nudity onscreen: He had used a prosthetic penis in a White Lotus episode and was being asked about it incessantly, then implied women don’t face the same line of questioning. Now, the British actor is walking back his comments and apologizing for his comparisons.
“I said the wrong words in the wrong way. I used the phrase ‘double standard,’ which I didn’t mean at all,” he told Variety. “There is a [different] double standard — women have been monstrously exploited and men haven’t.”
Originally, Isaacs addressed the conversation around his character’s body part being shown on White Lotus, as he dodged anchor Gayle King’s question about the use of a genital prosthetic. “It’s interesting because the best actress this year is Mikey Madison at the Oscars. And I don’t see anybody discussing her vulva, which was on television all the time,” he said at the time. (Her vagina was never onscreen.) “When women are naked… nobody would dream of talking to her about her genitalia or her nipples or any of those things. So, it’s odd that there’s a double standard when it comes to discussing [this].”
Speaking to Variety Tuesday, Isaacs claimed he was trying to brush off the question “lightheartedly” and that it simply “came out wrong.”
“I absolutely should not have mentioned those two actresses, whom I respect enormously. Mikey Madison I’m a massive fan of,” he said. “My point wasn’t that men have had a harder time than women — that would be absurd. Women have had a monstrous time on camera forever, and I hope to God that is changing.”
Isaacs continued by saying that he finds being asked about his or his characters’ penises “embarrassing and inappropriate,” and that he had been asked about it too many times. “I had been asked so many times in the same day by journalists, ‘Are you wearing a prosthetic?’ Which means, ‘Have I seen your actual penis? It’s very important for me to know if I’ve seen your penis.’ It just strikes me as a bit weird and slightly obsessive,” Isaacs told the outlet. “I thought I could have fun batting it off, but I batted it off very poorly.”
Sam Nivola and Sarah Catherine Hook — who play two of Isaacs’ character’s kids in The White Lotus — previously confirmed to TV Insider that, yes, Isaacs did wear a prosthetic. And he seemed to like wearing it. “It was a prosthetic,” added Hook. “He was very excited to do it. I think he took pride in the prosthetic.”
Nivola added, “He’s like, ‘It’s my fake dick scene today!’”
From Rolling Stone US
