Jesse Williams responds to buzz over his Broadway nude scene: 'It's a body'

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 5/10/2022, 4:21 p.m.
Nude images and video of Jesse Williams starring in Broadway's "Take Me Out" leaked on Monday night and began circulating …
Jesse Williams responds to buzz over his Broadway nude scene: 'It's a body'. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Glikas/Getty Images

Originally Published: 10 MAY 22 11:48 ET

Updated: 10 MAY 22 16:56 ET

By Marianne Garvey, CNN

(CNN) -- Nude images and video of Jesse Williams starring in Broadway's "Take Me Out" leaked on Monday night and began circulating online.

It happened hours after Williams was nominated for a Tony Award for best performance by a featured actor in a play.

Williams has since responded to the buzz around his scene.

"It's a body, once you see it, you realize it's whatever, it's a boy!" Jesse said on the "Watch What Happens Live After Show." "I just have to make it not that big of a deal."

In the play, Williams plays a gay baseball player who comes out at the height of his success and encounters problems because of it. Earlier this month, the actor told Page 6 he was initially "terrified" of the role and the nude scene but eventually got over it.

"Then I noted that that was what I asked God for. I asked to be terrified," Williams told the publication. "I asked to do something that was scary and challenging and made me earn it and made me feel alive and not comfortable."

There are other nude actors in the play. Second Stage's Hayes Theater has required the audience to place their phones in a locked pouch before the show "out of respect and support for our actors and in order to create a phone-free space."

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