Heading into the fifth and final season of the Showtime drama series The Affair, it was announced that one of its lead actresses in Ruth Wilson (Luther, His Dark Materials) would not be apart of the upcoming season. According to ComicBook.com, Wilson provided her reasoning for her departure citing being uncomfortable with nudity in addition to stating that “there was a situation on The Affair where things didn’t feel right, and I dealt with them, and I managed to protect myself.” This has been connected to allegations that the series’ co-creator Sarah Treem (House of Cards, In Treatment) would allegedly ask actors to be nude for scenes on a consistent basis.
The Affair premiered on Showtime in 2014 and centered on an extramarital relationship and the impact it has on the parties involved on all sides. The series was created by Treem and Hagai Levi (In Treatment) and consisted of five seasons, amassing a total of 53 episodes during this run. The series’ main cast included Dominic West (The Wire), Maura Tierney (ER, NewsRadio), Joshua Jackson (When They See Us, Fringe, Dawson’s Creek), Julia Goldani Telles (Bunheads, Slender Man), Jadon Sand (The Lego Movie), and Wilson herself.
For her role on The Affair, Wilson won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series Drama for the show’s first season. Her departure citing these allegations against Treem has been denied by the co-creator. “I have devoted my entire professional life to writing about and speaking to women’s issues, women’s causes, women’s empowerment, and creating strong, complex roles for women in theater and in Hollywood…The idea that I would ever cultivate an unsafe environment or harass a woman on one of my shows is utterly ridiculous and lacks a grounding in reality,” via ComicBook.com.