Jonathan Mendelsohn
Aubrey Plaza is a celebrated actress known for being a brave performer, but one action she was instructed to perform for a movie may shock many. In 2013, Aubrey Plaza starred in the comedy The To Do List, written and directed by Maggie Carey. The To Do List takes place in 1993 and followed recent high school graduate Brandy Klark as she creates a list of things she needs to do in order to be more experienced for college.
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During a scene where Brandy pleasures herself, Plaza reportedly walked into a huge surprise on set. Plaza spoke to Conan O’Brien while promoting The To Do List on his TBS show Conan. About the scene in question, The White Lotus star said “In my head, I envisioned a nice scene where you see my hand slowly go out of frame. 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.”
Aubrey Plaza’s Awkward Set Experience
Plaza then told Conan that she decided to speak with Carey about the scene. Plaza continued, saying, “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. And I asked the director, ‘What should I do?’ And she said, ‘Masturbate, like it says in the script’.”
Plaza later told Oregon Live, “Looking back on it, I feel like the masturbating scene was a little bit the most nerve-racking. 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’. But then when we did it and I was like, ‘Oh no, we’re going to shoot it where I do it’.”
Carey, who was once married to funnyman Bill Hader, has not directed a film since The To Do List. Plaza, who first rose to fame by playing April Ludgate on the popular sitcom Parks and Recreation, has gone on to have a very fruitful career, having just garnered positive reactions for her performance of Harper in The White Lotus.
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