There is an overwhelming uptick in nudes on local TV, with shows Shaka iLembe, The Black Door, The Wife, Fatal Seduction and Adulting ushering this unstoppable taboo shift on the small screen.

Actors from Nomzamo Mbatha to Thembinkosi Mthembu, Khanyi Mbau, Zamani Mbatha, Dippy Padi, Kwenzo Ngcobo and Mondli Makhoba have flashed the flesh on the small screen in the last year.

Local TV is naked now more than ever. We are in the “Golden Era” of butts in your face and boobs out in the open. Some television viewers have expressed outrage – but what’s going to happen when Hollywood’s newfound obsession with full-frontal nudity trockles down to Mzansi? Penile nudity is on the rise on American television as seen in shows like Euphoria, Swarm, Game of Thrones and The White Lotus.

For the actors who portray these characters, they are glad that local storytelling is no longer afraid to go where it has shied away from. Take Padi, for example, who didn’t waste time taking off her clothes in a sex scene in the premiere episode of Adulting on Showmax. Padi loved it, although she points out, filming such a love scene is anything but sexy – in fact it’s all technical.

“Nudity will always be scary, especially in SA, we are still cultural in most aspects, but for us to change the narrative, it needs to be done tastefully,” Padi argues.

“Yes, there is a rise and from what I see, what production houses are doing is taking risks in terms of their storytelling and my question is, why not?

“The experience was nerve-racking but I held it down because of the support I had behind the scenes.”

In order to get the scene right, Padi, as it’s the standard in filming such scenes, worked with an intimacy coordinator. An intimacy coordinator is a crew member, who works closely with actors and assures their well-being in such scenes. They will also help choreograph such scenes and how it will be simulated.

But Padi admits that even though she was comfortable, she couldn’t overcome the awkwardness.

“A limited number of people are allowed on the set at that particular time as it becomes a closed set. It’s very safe and to be honest, I appreciated that the producers did that,” Padi says.

Actor and casting director Keneilwe Matidze was the intimacy coordinator on Adulting, working closely with Padi. A bad experience as a novice actor on set motivated Matidze to become an intimacy coordinator.

“One of my first jobs was when I was 19 and played a prostitute. In the scene I was partially naked, wearing a boob tube and little shorts. In the scene I was getting out of bed and beginning to get dressed,” Matidze recounts.

“The director says to me that they prefer that I take off my boob tube, which means my breasts will be exposed. I felt alone on set. This was never discussed with me beforehand and it was not part of the agreement. 

“I didn’t know what to do, so I asked to speak to my agent first and my request didn’t go down well with the director… I came back and said to the director that I couldn’t do it and they said good luck to me getting any other roles. Nobody was there talking on my behalf or making me feel comfortable and I felt that my job was compromised.”

Consent with the actor throughout  is paramount, Matidze notes, it starts in the casting process. She adds that when the casting brief was sent out for Adulting, it disclosed the amount of sexual content. Matidze makes it clear in shooting, nothing is real, everything is simulated.

“I would have a conversation with the director to find out what their vision is, and then with the actors we would go through a nudity and intimate checklist, where we ask specific questions, like are they comfortable being touched on the shoulder; are they comfortable revealing your side breast,”  she explains.

“We can shoot it in a way where if they [actors] are not comfortable with revealing the nipple, we can shoot the side-breast and cover the nipples because that also implies nudity.

“But if there is no other way that we can make it comfortable and still get the director’s vision, then we may have to shoot another day or get in a body double. We can only use a body double in respect to the actor's consent as well.”

Luthando “BU” Mthembu, who also had some steamy scenes in Adulting offers his experience as a man. He echoes Padi’s words, he too is excited that local filmmaking is exploring nudity all in the name of art.

“It’s quite sad that our progression is only coming at a later stage, whereas the rest of the world has made peace with nudity,” he opines.

But Mthembu cautions, it has to make sense in the storyline.

“I plan to explore as an actor but in a more tasteful manner. In the same breath, I won’t be doing nude or sex scenes always, I don’t want to fall into the notion of being typecast as a nudity-type-of-actor,” he adds.

Mthembu further points out that while it is used as an art form, it is also used to bait viewers into tuning in. He also hints that some sets he has been on haven’t always prioritised the well-being of actors in such scenes. 

“The rise in nudity on our screen comes from people’s curiosity and the element that ‘sex sells’. At the end of the day, it’s a numbers game that can benefit the producers,” he shares.

“I’ve been in quite a few productions where some of them I felt very safe, whereas some I didn’t. In spite of this, I’ve always made sure to make myself as comfortable as possible to do what I have to do with my partner regardless of the setting.”

Mandla N, the creator of e.tv’s risqué drama The Black Door agrees 100% that the increase in nudity on television is a numbers game. After a year, the daily drama unflinchingly depicting life in a brothel ended making way for tame spin-off Isitha, The Enemy. 

But The Black Door was hardly a rating smash and performed moderately. The top-rated episode in May when it aired its finale pulled a viewership of 1,85-million according to the Broadcast Research Council of SA. Same month in the same 9:30pm time-slot, Isitha premiered and its best-performing episode drew an audience rating of 2,05m. According to e.tv, Isitha in June jumped to 2.4-million viewers.

“Our plan for The Black Door was to rock the time-slot and build market share as well as viewers…. Remember, on television there are different pillars on how you generate your audience – it’s either you shock them or emotionally hook them with a love factor. So, with us, we shocked them with the nudity,” Mandla N details.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of learning around that experience... for us, we were building a slot that we knew we’d create a spin-off [Isitha] from. Another big dream for us was that we wanted to do a risqué type of content that isn’t a norm in this country – the beauty of that is that it inspired other filmmakers to go bold with their content. 

“Producers want numbers, they also want to exercise all forms of storytelling, and part of it is the shock factor. Nudity is very much part of everyone’s life. Everyone can relate to nudity and sex, and it would be a disservice to leave it out in our part of storytelling.”

'It's time we unpack and explore sexuality in sacred spaces'

The Films and Publications Board (FPB) says South African viewers are still sensitive around sexual conduct and nudity.

“Nudity in a natural state in terms of breastfeeding, reed dancing and cultural practices is not used as a classification agent to determine the age rating. Only when nudity is in a sexual conduct context do we use the classification guideline on the level of nudity,” Riana Botes, assistant manager of classifications at FPB.

“We picked up that as a South African society, we are sensitive around sexual conduct and nudity. A recent complaint we received was Showmax’s The Wife, where some of those episodes were explicit in terms of sexual conduct. What we have experienced is on the increase is the sensitivity around sexual violence and hypocrisy around hatred, which is not simply a societal issue but a global one as well.”

Botes also made a case to filmmaking taking creative license.

“We must remember the psychology of filmmakers is to open dialogue around these issues and that any form of censorship under the South African constitution we must not even consider,” Botes says. 

“As the FPB, we have not refused any classification of content; if there is scientific, dramatic, artistic content that is part of the bonafide storyline we will bring it out of the restricted content, and we will apply the most appropriate classification.”

Most of these storylines depict sexual immorality, which since the beginning of time, has never been well-received by Christianity. But perhaps it’s time we unpacked and explored sexuality in sacred spaces. 

Dr Nontando Hadebe, who is an international coordinator for Side by Side; gender consultant for Bread for the World and member of Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, certainly seem to be leaning towards that.

“When something as precious as that is put on screen, it does raise questions of holiness and if one can do that. It’s a conversation that we need to start having in our churches so that we don’t pretend that it’s not there, but we can say this is happening on our televisions, our children are watching, how can we talk about sexuality in ways that provide that moral guidance,” Hadebe says.

“Do make it a gift from God so that it is part of being human and of our faith, and making us whole people so that we are kind and compassionate. It speaks to the disconnect of sexuality being a gift from God and moralising it, which has its place so that it doesn’t become something harmful or abusive.”

Dumisile Nala, CEO for Childline SA, expresses disdain over the rise of such inappropriate content on the health of children. Nala also stresses that while such racy imagery is harmful to underage children, parents need to do more in protecting them.

“Parents can set clear expectations in the home to say that we do not watch a particular programme, so the child knows that even in their absence what not to watch,” Nala said.

“In the instance where the parent may not have the ability to switch off the sensitive scene immediately, we advise them to use it as an opportunity to discuss what was presented, why it is inappropriate and what we would want them [children] to do in such situations.”