Hey everybody, Paul Cram here
If you’ve ever seen male nudity on television, usually it’s not frontal nudity, rather it is usually implied nudity on TV or in movies. Places like that.
Nine times out of ten, the guy is not naked.
Usually they are wearing a sock. I mean, not like a sock that is this big actually. It would be a sock, I think they call them a sock? At least I think that is what they called it when I was on set.
Umm, it is usually something that is more like a pouch like this.
And obviously this is just a normal sock, but ahh it has around it, like a, almost like a ribbon-type thing that ties on.
You get the idea.
It’s like a, just a fabric pouch.
And it ties on.
You would, you know, put… I am going to use very medical terms actually.
You would take penis and scrotum and put them into the sack and you would tie it off.
And the reason for this is really obvious.
A lot of times, a lot of times, actors are not on set alone. And it is kind of a modesty thing. Sort of. Which in a way is funny in that you are filming something where it is supposed to be naked. Yet while you are filming you are doing it in a way so that it’s not naked.
Which, I don’t know, that makes me chuckle.
I am getting a little off track.
There was two times I’ve worked on film projects when I was given a sock.
And the first project I had worked on with a sock was in Boston on a film called “Not The One”
and in the film I played Lance the Naked Roommate.
And I loved it. I absolutely loved it.
My character, in the film, only has clothes on one time. The rest of the movie he is buck naked in the apartment. He is the room mate from hell. In that he is a nudist.
And if you are ever at the apartment, he doesn’t care. No matter who you are Lance doesn’t care. He is going to take off all of his clothes in his apartment.
That’s just who he is.
And part of me loves that.
Ummm.
I was a little bit nervous, I guess is the word. Umm, because I’ve never done that before. That was the first role that I had ever been on set in that way, without clothes on.
They did have a sock though.
Which I put on and tied. Ya know, for the backside there is nothing you can do.
The way that the camera was set up, was, it’s funny, the camera was set up kind of directly behind me. I am standing there and the camera was shooting like through my legs.
It sounds really sexual. It wasn’t. It actually was hysterical.
It was very funny.
And the scene was that the lead actress walks in, and she doesn’t know that I am there, and she doesn’t know that I am a nudist. So she walks in because my room mate is dating her. And she is there with him. He didn’t know that I was home. So she walks in the room and I am standing there buck naked and just like “Whatever.” And her reaction to me is supposed to be, in the movie her reaction is supposed to be like “Oh Hey, Nice To Meet Ya.” Like she is just not phased by it. Which says a lot about her character.
But in real life… that was not necessarily the response that she had. And with good reason. A naked guy, a naked man, wearing a sock with a ribbon tied around it to hold it onto himself looks ridiculous.
I looked ridiculous
The director calls action, the actress walks in, and she takes one look at me and busts out laughing as hard as she possibly can. Not just a little chuckle. Like she is laughing.
So I was like HUH.
They had to reset some things, they had to reset some lights and cameras and things like that.
I don’t know how to say this in a PG way. I guess I won’t.
I’ll just say it and it is what it is.
The sock was hanging down a lot and what was happening was you could see my hands too… basically what happened was that the director made the request, because of where everything was landing, he made the request to see if I would take off the sock for a shot.
They would not see penis. They wouldn’t see penis, but they were seeing sock. So I… at this point, it’s really interesting being on set without clothes on because I am a guy and for dudes it is so much easier than it is for women with nudity. Because it is so not really sexy at all. To be on set naked nobody really cares that there is a guy standing there. If I was a woman, then it’s different. There is something way more sexy, and way more beautiful about it.
I think. Than just me standing there like I am naked and nobody cares.
So it felt, after 5 minutes or so of standing there in this sock, and even once I took the sock off- after 5 minutes it reminded me a lot of being in a locker room, or something like that where it’s just, you are changing or you are doing your thing and in this case I was standing there and I was working. So I took the sock off. I didn’t really think too much about it. And they reset the scene. The actress walks in again and she busts out laughing. Again. And I am not wearing the funny sock at this point in time.
and if you are a guy you will know what I mean. It’s a little bit like ooooh. huh. I am naked. Which is very revealing and you are laughing at me, I don’t feel so good about myself. So we, the director is like “OK, pull it together” and we go again. And the actress walks in and she is like… and she busts out laughing again. And I am standing there naked. And I literally just want to like… I wanna be not standing here naked and having somebody be pointing and laughing at me. Ahhhh. And at this point I really appreciated what the director did because what the director did is he looked a thte actress and I think that he could, I could too, the director could feel for the actress because it is kind of an awkward situation and it is kind of funny. So I know that he could feel that. But I think the bigger picture, and why I appreciated what he did was- I am the one that is standing there very exposed, and I am the one that has to deal with that. And you are laughing at me specifically. It’s hard to say that you aren’t. So what the director did, and I appreciated, was he yelled at the actress. He was like “You are being so unprofessional, I can’t believe you are doing this, you know, get your act together and do this. Or did we cast the wrong actress?!” And he was really, he was harsh in a way. But I appreciated it because I was like She Is Not Standing There Naked, I am. And I felt like the director was, he pushed back really harshly with her and I think it was good because I felt like, in a way, that was the first day of filming and we had a lot of filming left to do for me and for my character. So it was in a way setting a precedent of like “You know what? Paul has to do this. You need to be professional. All of the actors are going to hear about this. Let’s be professional.”
And she did. She pulled it together we shot the rest of the scenes and things like that and I… yeah, the whole sock thing is so bizarre to me in a way. Yeah, and the other time that I was given a sock was on the horror movie “13 Hours In A Warehouse” and in that one I have a really tragic tragic tragic tragic death scene for my character and he ummm he doesn’t have pants on. So again, I was given a sock and because of how the camera was set up, there is just so many different angles and things like that that happen and on again I was asked “would you mind taking the sock off?”
Because we are seeing, it’s too much, it’s too obvious that there is a sock there. And they are trying to imply nudity, so again I was fine taking the sock off.
And
It’s interesting what happened on that in that instance. Ummm, just with some of the special effect things that they were working with.
I’ll have to actually, I’ll have to talk about that in another video because it’s kind of funny what happened but it’s a little bit involved. anyhow, I just wanted to mention that when you see nudity on screen in movies and on TV, especially with men, ummm, it’s cheated in a way. It’s cheated because they usually wear a sock. I… like I said, I took mine off once or twice uhhh, actually I took it off a lot. But it was because of angles and things like that. But the, in general, I’ve even heard of Neil Patrick Harris was on that TV show, and had one on because he was in a hot tub scene and I don’t know where I am exactly going with all this but I just chuckled. It’s a little bit of one of those movie-making magic things that I hope I didn’t ruin it for everybody. The suspension of disbelief that happens when you are watching a movie, but it is one of those things that I’ve experienced as an actor and found interesting. I was like OH. They actually aren’t naked. I am assuming the same thing for women. I don’t know. I’ve never been on a lot of sets where women have nude scenes or nudity. But I am assuming that it is probably something very similar where it’s pasties or it’s different things like that. That they would use. But I know for guys that it is a glorified sock with ties on it. or Whatever. So, I don’t know. Anyway, I hope that everybody is having a good one. Leave me a comment, subscribe, and I’ll be in touch. Alright. Take care.
