‘White Lotus’ Star Jason Isaacs Takes Back Comment About Male Nudity and Mikey Madison: ‘I Said the Wrong Words’ and ‘Women Have Been Monstrously Exploited’
https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/jason-isaacs-regrets-male-nudity-mikey-madison-comment-1236340755/
32 comments
>In an attempt to playfully dodge questions about whether he was wearing a prosthetic or going au naturel in Season 3’s fourth episode, Isaacs told journalists that there is a “double standard” for male actors doing nude scenes and that the media “would never dream” of asking “Anora’s” Mikey Madison or “The Substance” star Margaret Qualley about their genitalia. To his dismay, his remarks made a splash online.
>Clarifying his comments, Isaacs tells Variety, “I said the wrong words in the wrong way. I used the phrase ‘double standard,’ which I didn’t mean at all. There is a [different] double standard — women have been monstrously exploited and men haven’t.”
>“It came out wrong, and I was tired — I’d done so many interviews,” Isaacs says. “I absolutely should not have mentioned those two actresses, whom I respect enormously. Mikey Madison I’m a massive fan of. My point wasn’t that men have had a harder time than women — that would be absurd. Women have had a monstrous time on camera forever, and I hope to God that is changing.”
>“I had been asked so many times in the same day by journalists, ‘Are you wearing a prosthetic?’ Which means, ‘Have I seen your actual penis? It’s very important for me to know if I’ve seen your penis.’ It just strikes me as a bit weird and slightly obsessive,” Isaacs says. “I thought I could have fun batting it off, but I batted it off very poorly.”
At least he isn’t making excuses or being a martyr about it. More celebrities could learn from a simple statement like this.
“Now, back to discussing those teeth.”
Foot in mouth moment
People will probably still be pissed, but this seems like a solid explanation. A man can only answer so many questions about his prosthetic dong before he cracks.
Seems to me instead of fixing the issues with this stuff, aka attitudes towards women’s bodies in the media we instead just started to apply those same unrealistic standards towards men.
Now we get this stuff. Commenting on men’s penises. Forcing men to go without water for 2 days so they can look extra cut. Forcing men to work out for months to bulk up to unrealistic sizes. Forcing men to eat ridiculous diets.
Like yay equality I guess, but fixing the problem in the first place woulda been better.
Seems to me instead of fixing the issues with this stuff, aka attitudes and standards in regards to women’s bodies in the media we instead just started to apply those same unrealistic standards towards men.
Now we get this stuff. Commenting on men’s penises. Forcing men to go without water for 2 days so they can look extra cut. Forcing men to work out for months to bulk up to unrealistic sizes. Forcing men to eat ridiculous diets.
Like yay equality I guess, but fixing the problem in the first place woulda been better.
This is a good statement, and it makes me really like Jason Isaacs.
Maybe it’s because I like Jason Isaacs, but I thought it was fairly obvious that this was exactly what he meant
Still good he clarified
This is, he said what he wanted to say but he got bad publicity and his pr team told him to take it back and now he’s taking it back.
I’ll give “poor man’s Daniel Craig” a full pass. Whatever. His character is stressing me out
it really rubbed me the wrong way when he originally said that, but after reading this response I get it. I literally can’t even imagine the shit I’d start babbling if I had to do tons of press day after day with almost no rest. this seems genuine to me
It’s infuriating that instead of the story being that the interviewer was out of line, outrage was directed towards him for not wanting to answer the incessant questioning regarding the dong to the point that HE has apologize
An actor owning a mistake in an interview is a rare thing these days. Makes me like him way more
at least he admitted he was wrong and took it back
This guys seems like a class act. I’ll tune into White Lotus just so I can take a gander at that hog.
I’ve been a fan of his for a while and watched a lot of his obscure YouTube interviews after the OA.
To me it was very clear what he meant, but he did indeed say it the worst way possible. I don’t think JI is a bad dude. He’s a wordy theater guy
As someone out of the loop, is there more context that the quote of his? He was right with what he said the first time, and he was right with what he followed up with. There is a double standard, and women also have been grossly exploited. Can’t two things be true?
Never apologize when you’re right.
Sheesh. Poor guy gets all discombobulated being asked about his penis and says some foot and mouth stuff. Good recovery though. Leave the man alone!!
Always liked Isaacs so I’m glad to hear him admit he handled this subject poorly
Soooo the important question is… who we need to kill go get another season of OA.
I’m just going to assume that we all did, in fact see his (and therefore Lucius Malfoy’s) actual penis
Was it a real penis or no
I can understand if he felt sexually objectified in that moment, and that it was a valuable experience in terms of being able to empathize with women and see the ways in which objectification of female bodies is normalized.
At the same time, it’s a simple question. So what if people saw your penis? There’s nothing to be ashamed of.
the best part of reading this is the Beavis and Butthead in my head laughing to infinity at “I thought I could have fun batting it off but batted it off very poorly..”
I mean yeah, no one felt the “need” to ask about or ponder Marg Qualley in the substance because boobs are just an out and about thing. It’s obvious when an incredibly thin, petite breasted woman shows up with big gazonga knockers. But dudes and their dicks, unless it’s looney tunes porn sized, literally anything could be in his pants and we’d never know
He was absolutely right. The press and talk-show hosts and interviewers seem to think it acceptable to ask and talk about male actors nudity scenes much more openly than they’d dare ask female actors nowadays. The whole point about being sensitive to a topic is that you should be sensitive towards everyone. Maybe, if you feel a burning desire to comment on an actor’s genitalia (and implicitly asking them the size, because, let’s be honest here, they weren’t asking just for moviemaking technical reasons), you could ask your interviewee, off the record, if they are open to discuss their nude scenes and specify the details you’re interested in. Even so, it’s bordering on inappropriate. If they think it’s an important issue in the movie promotion, they’ll bring it up themselves. Jason Isaacs is a very articulate English man, he’d know how to bring up his nudity scenes if he wanted to.
And yes, we know female bodies are objectified and sexualized, and the worst part regarding the entertainment industry is that actresses have often been pressured into doing nude or vulnerable scenes, and their consent or comfort was irrelevant and even worse, they were afterwards asked ad nauseam about their sex scenes in interviews. It doesn’t make badgering men into the same situations any better, it makes it worse because we should all know better by now.
This is a very nice apology and I really appreciate that he did this. Shows a lot of class and maturity and thoughtfulness. Of course everyone can have an off day and not explain themselves clearly and misunderstandings happen. I really respect someone who can apologize for how they come across, even when it’s unintentional. I’m really happy to see this from him. I’m really enjoying his work on the show.
As far as apologies go, this was a good one. Took accountability and elaborated on his original stance without putting anyone down. We should move on now
Yeah he will be fine. Solid dude and a great actor. Perfect and humbling apology.
Good of him to clarify that; he’s a good egg
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