Instant intimacy

Scenology, Shooting Films — By Adele on 16 September, 2009 8:01 pm

Browsing for something to read, I found myself leafing through “This Mitchell and Webb Book” (NB: As a TV and radio act, Mitchell and Webb make me laugh much more reliably, but I liked the writing quite a lot, anyway.)

My eyes fell on a piece by Robert Webb on actors and their perceived “luvvieness”:

Actors certainly are unusually tactile and kissy. This is partly because they have to form extremely close working relationships at lightning speed. You might have just met an actress two hours ago at the first read-through of a play and now you’re simulating sex with her, pretending to punch her in the face or weeping together over the death of your smackhead uncle. Making a big fuss about how friendly and supportive they are to each other is a way for actors to acknowledge that what they do for a living is weird.

Take out the “simulating” and “pretending” (and swap a punch for a slap), and you have a pretty accurate description of the mood inside the professional spanking scene – in England, at least. People like to hug and call each other “babe” and “darling”, and make a fuss about the state of each other’s bottoms, and shout “that’s beautiful!” over the top of the camera after the call to cut. And this is necesary, because you’re making yourself instantly vulnerable to a virtual stranger, and they to you – repeatedly, in ever more inventive ways; and don’t forget those endorphine jumps. An atmosphere of friendliness and caring goes a long way to prevent everyone from breaking down in tears or bouncing off the ceiling mid-shoot. (There are evenings for that.)

Of course, this veneer of warm fuzziness may create in newbies an impression that the professional scene is a place of complete harmony, where everybody is your best friend and nobody will ever do you any harm. But whereas most professional outfits really will look out for you, the ones that won’t will also be smiling and friendly when they suggest going beyond your limits, or pay you a bad cheque, or cast you with a top who doesn’t know one end of the cane from another. These folks will also call you “darling”, but afterwards you’ll wonder how you could have let yourself drop your guard so much. So do your homework in references – and after that, enjoy all the hugs.

(Picture from Behind Kink)