‘Westworld’ Orgy Secrets Revealed as a Producer Shares Behind the Scenes Details
Sunday’s episode of “Westworld” turned up the heat in a major way.
READ MORE: ‘Westworld’ Review: ‘Contrapasso’ Searches for Purpose in Between the Orgies
The fifth episode of the HBO series, called “Contrapasso,” sees William (Jimmi Simpson), Logan (Ben Barnes) and robot host Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) visit a new area of the park called Pariah, a city comprised of criminals and apparently dozens of group sex enthusiasts. The ensuing orgy scene takes the show just short of entering the pornographic realm.
“I think all of us have a modicum of taste that keeps us from taking it too far into the pornographic world and keeps it in the sensual world,” co-executive producer and supervising director Richard J. Lewis told THR. Staging the scene, however, did require dozens of “special extras” and a “sex stylist,” he added. “We just wanted to create a palette that was very sensual and very dark and not particularly rote or done.”
READ MORE: ‘Westworld’ Featurette Digs Into the Reality Behind the Show’s Rich A.I. — Watch
Where did the idea for this love fest come from? Here’s Lewis’s explanation on the influences and thinking behind the orgy scene:
“[I]t does feel like there are a lot of influences there, from ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ and some Kubrickian stuff that’s there, as well as the movie ‘120 Days of Sodom’ by Pier Paolo Pasolini — a ’70s movie that’s a crazy, orgy-tastic ordeal. (Laughs.) We wanted to do something that’s epic. [Westworld showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy] always wanted to do the biggest, best and most mind-blowing stuff, so we wanted to create the best sex orgy you can imagine. To that effect, we had some stylists. We really curated the scene to the T. Sometimes, to me, it has almost a medieval flavor. You can’t categorize it, because it’s so uniquely strange and beautiful in a way.”
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