The original script for Ryan Murphy’s “Hollywood” was way too hot to handle.
According to actor David Corenswet, who plays gigolo-turned-actor Jack Castello, the Netflix series’ first draft “was like soft-to-medium-core porn,” he tells Variety in an interview released Tuesday.
Corenswet says calling it “a little edgier is putting it way mild” and goes on to describe the script’s pervy vibe.
“It was very explicit and very descriptive. There were pages and pages just describing the sex and the intimate encounters,” says Corenswet, 26, without detailing specifics. He adds that some sexy scenarios simply were not appropriate for television, even a pay-streaming service, “but with Netflix and Ryan, you never know because there aren’t any rules.”
“Hollywood” offers a retelling — sexploits and all — of real-life obstacles faced by stars like a closeted Rock Hudson (Jake Picking), Tallulah Bankhead (Paget Brewster), Anna May Wong (Michelle Krusiec) and Hattie McDaniel (Queen Latifah) in the glory days of Tinseltown.
For “Hollywood,” Murphy actually wanted to do ribald romps “tastefully,” Corenswet says. And the actor seems content with his experience, including a scene with Patti LuPone, who plays Avis Amberg, a studio executive’s wife who pays for hot hookups with Castello.
“As far as the sex stuff, the scene where Jack gets introduced to the world and turns his first trick, in the finished product, that’s a beautiful sex scene with Patti LuPone,” he says. “Much more about sex, it’s about the two characters and these lonely people who happened to find each other.”
He also said that scene with LuPone was “somewhat tame,” adding that they “knew each other pretty well” for weeks before he wound up “railing her on the banister” in an early scene.
Of course, 54-year-old Murphy is known for pushing the erotic envelope. Macaulay Culkin, 39, recently said he signed up for Season 10 of the uber-producer’s spooky anthology “American Horror Story” because of “crazy, erotic sex” scenes with castmate Kathy Bates, 71.