Several airlines were slammed by actor and director Olivia Wilde recently. This happened after she discovered a lesbian sex scene and other references to female sexuality that were cut from her film, “Booksmart”.
After viewing the edited version in a flight, the 35-year-old star took to her Twitter account on Wednesday to vent her frustration. In a series of posts, she criticised the sanitised version of the film shown in airlines while also diving deeper into the details on how her movie was censored.
I finally had the chance to watch an edited version of Booksmart on a flight to see exactly what had been censored. Turns out some airlines work with a third party company that edits the movie based on what they deem inappropriate. Which, in our case, is … female sexuality? 🤔
— olivia wilde (@oliviawilde) October 30, 2019
In the same series of tweets, the “House” star also questioned why the film was edited in the first place. Since viewers were required to agree to a “parental advisory” warning before being able to view the movie.
“First of all, in order to select this movie from hundreds of options, you have to agree to a ‘parental advisory’ that warns you that viewer discretion is advised,” she wrote. “Once you click ‘proceed’, it seems like you’ve agreed to watch the movie in its original form,” she added.
The scenes that were edited out from the film include a sexual interaction with the movie’s character, Molly, the second half of an animated doll sequence, and Amy and Hope’s love scene in a bathroom (where Wilde pointed out to have “involves zero nudity”). The latter scene was also said to have contain essential plot points for the lead character.
The “Tron: Legacy” actress also noted some disparity with the censorship when words such as vagina and genital were edited out from the scenes. While curse words such as F**k and a scene where a male character deep throating a microphone remained.
“What message is this sending to viewers and especially to women? That their bodies are obscene? That their sexuality is shameful?” she asked. “I urge every airline, especially those who pride themselves on inclusivity, to stop working with this third party company, and trust the parental advisory warning to allow viewers to opt out if they choose.”
The movie in question is a coming-of-age comedy, where two girls are graduating high school. It is a directorial debut for actress Wilde. “Booksmart” received a R-rating for the sexual content and vulgar humour contain within the film.
So do you think the actress was right to question the censorship, or do you think the airline did the right thing in cutting those scenes?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter.
