‘Westworld’ Orgy Scene Draws Lots of Love on Social Media

Westworld” viewers love a good orgy, apparently.

Sunday night’s episode of the HBO drama, titled “Contrapasso,” included an extravagant orgy scene featuring a horde of naked extras. According to language-analytics firm Canvs, the scene drove a spike in Twitter posts about the show expressing the emotional reaction “love.” Canvs analyzed 12,308 “Westworld”-related tweets captured by Nielsen Sunday night and found that 36% of them expressed some sort of emotional reaction. “Love” was the most common sentiment expressed, accounting for 39% of all emotional reactions to the show.

After the orgy scene aired, 500 tweets followed that specifically mentioned the word “orgy.” Of those, 80% expressed “love.” Only 10% expressed “dislike.”

The “Westworld” orgy had been a controversy generator long before Sunday night’s episode aired. In September, when the scene was being shot, SAG-AFTRA sent a notice to union members reminding them of their rights to withdraw from sex scenes involving nudity.

The union also posted a link to a consent form actors participating in the scene were asked to sign, which stated, “By accepting this Project assignment, you may be required to do any of the following: appear fully nude; wear a pubic hair patch; perform genital-to-genital touching; have your genitals painted; simulate oral sex with hand-to-genital touching; contort to form a table-like shape while being fully nude; pose on all fours while others who are fully nude ride on your back; ride on someone’s back while you are both fully nude; and other assorted acts the Project may require.”

The union later stated that the production had altered the consent form in a way that satisfied union requirements.

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