According to a new report, video game actors want less secrecy about the projects they sign on to, as this can sometimes lead to them appearing in disturbing scenes without warning.
This article refers to sexual assault.
The BBC cites numerous motion capture and voice artists who wish the industry would be less secretive about the games they appear in.
Casting director Jessica Jefferies told the BBC that developers often don't tell actors about the type of game or the scenes they're shooting until the last minute.
“We would get an email or a call from a studio saying we needed you for a shoot on those days,” she explained. “That was the only information we got.”
Jefferies said she has experienced harrowing examples of this firsthand, including a situation in which she was asked to play the victim of a sexual assault without being informed beforehand.
“I arrived and was told I was going to film an explicit rape scene,” she told the BBC.
“The player could watch this action through a window for as long or as short as they wanted, and then the player could shoot this character in the head. In my opinion, that was just gratuitous.”
She added: “It's not about nudity, but it's still an act and that act is intimate and also violent in that situation. So yes, there may be a layer of Lycra between us, but you're still there and you have to really immerse yourself in that scene.”
Jefferies said she refused to do the scene and it was ultimately not recorded that day, but argued that actors should never be put in a position where they have to “make a fuss” over explicit scenes they knew nothing about, especially when, as in her case, they are the only woman on set.
A voice actor who wished to remain anonymous also told the BBC that the actors have signed non-disclosure agreements but are still told “almost nothing” about the games they are working on.
She also recounted a situation in which she volunteered to record the sound of an important game and only found out at work that it was “a complete sex scene.”
“I had to [vocally] “I was adjusting to the scene and through the glass in the booth the whole team, all men, were watching me,” she explained. “It was horrifying… I'd been in the games industry for a while at that point and I'd never felt so shaken.”
She added: “What made me so angry about the situation was that I was embarrassed, no one thought to ask me if I was OK with it, and no one followed up to see if I was OK.”
Performing arts union Equity is calling on the games industry to take steps to improve performance by providing performers with a story summary, scene breakdown and script in advance, giving performers the option to request a closed set if necessary, and employing intimacy coordinators.