Director who 'instructed Aubrey Plaza to masturbate' in movie said she was 'game for everything'

The director who allegedly told Aubrey Plaza to masturbate during a scene described her performance as 'gutsy'. Quite the review.

Back in 2013, Plaza starred in the coming-of-age film The To-Do List, in which she played Brandy Klark, a sexually inexperienced teen set to go to college. Here's what she had to say about that scene:

Feeling the pressure to pop her cherry before heading off to uni, Plaza's character enlists the help of her friends to help her finally get laid.

During one particular scene in the flick, her character gets to know herself a bit (cough) better (cough).

But while the idea of making a fool of yourself in a room full of strangers would be hell to most people, for actors it's par for the course, and Plaza treated it as such.

However, that was before she realised that she would actually be expected to get intimate with herself on set, rather than simulate it.

"In my head, I envisioned a nice scene where you see my hand slowly go out of frame,” the 38-year-old told Conan O'Brien at the time.

CBS Films

"That's what I thought I was going into, but then when I showed up, the camera was mounted on the ceiling, I was in my underwear and a Clinton t-shirt, and there were a bunch of old men smoking, ya know, the crew guys. And then I went and touched myself."

Plaza said that she also spoke to the film's director Maggie Carey about the scene.

"I thought I was doing one thing and then when I showed up, it was a whole different thing, it was a full body shot," she recalled.

"And I asked the director, 'What should I do?' And she said, 'Masturbate, like it says in the script'."

Plaza also told Oregon Live about the infamous scene, admitting that she was worried about it all.

"Looking back on it, I feel like the masturbating scene was a little bit the most nerve-racking," she said.

"Just because in my head I thought, 'Oh, we'll probably shoot this in a way where I don't really have to really do it'.

Associated Press/Alamy

"But then when we did it and I was like, 'Oh no, we're going to shoot it where I do it'."

But despite all the anxiety she had around it, and obvious embarrassment, the director said that she put in one hell of a performance in the film.

Speaking at the time, Carey praised Plaza's bravery.

"She was so brave; she was game for everything, you know, which was so fun," she told Screen Slam.

"And she had no problem putting herself in these very awkward situations. But, you know, it's played for comedy and she just nailed it.

"It was just so fun to work with her, yeah, she's very, err, gutsy."

I guess that's one way to put it.

Topics: TV and Film, US News

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers is LADbible's Editorial Lead. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History, he went on to write for the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express. So as you can imagine, he’s spent many a night wondering just how useful that second language has been. But c'est la vie.

@SmithersDom