Jesse Williams has opened up about stripping off as part of his Broadway debut.
The Grey’s Anatomy of him on stage in Take Me Out, appearing fully nude.
In one scene, the 40-year-old emerged from a shower completely n**ed.n**ed, with the footage doing the rounds on Twitter – despite there being a ban on the use of phones in the audience.
The levels of thirst on social media were unmatched, but the star isn’t all that fussed about stripping off, insisting that it is ‘just a body’.
During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live, alongside co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Andy Cohen questioned him on ‘presenting’ himself in front of a packed audience, including possible members of his family and his wider team.
‘What I say to that is… We got held up with Covid, we had two years of everybody around me going, “Are you serious? Are you sure? Nude nude? n**ed.n**ed n**ed.n**ed?”,’ he told the host.
‘Everybody makes such a big deal, it’s a body. Once you see it, you realize… Whatever. It’s a body. I just have to not make that big a deal.’
A fan also took the opportunity to ask whether Jesse was nervous for his Grey’s castmates, including Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey) and on-screen mom Debbie Allen (Catherine Fox), to be in the audience, and what their advice to him was.
‘I wasn’t nervous for them to see me,’ the Jackson Avery star replied. ‘I didn’t know Ellen or Debbie were coming. I’ve learned in my first few weeks in production that I don’t want to know.
‘I thought I was confident, then realized I don’t want to know, absolutely not.’
‘The best piece of advice from Debbie is watching Debbie. Watching her go just head-long and her level of confidence and self-awareness and commitment is incredible,’ he added.
‘She’s a mentor and an incredible friend.’
Take Me Out is written by Richard Greenberg and is on at the Helen Hayes Theater in New York, also starring Patrick J Adams.
The official synopsis reads: ‘Take Me Out follows Darren Lemming, star center fielder for the Empires, who reveals he is gay and faces a barrage of long-held unspoken prejudices.
‘Facing some hostile teammates and fraught friendships, Darren is forced to contend with the challenges of being a gay person of color within the confines of a classic American institution.
‘As the Empires struggle to rally toward a championship season, the players and their fans begin to question tradition, their loyalties and the price of victory.’
Something tells us it will be even harder to get your hands on tickets now…
