Olivia Wilde, the 35-year-old actress-turned-director who helmed the widely acclaimed teen comedy Booksmart, said on Tuesday that “my heart just broke” when she saw her film on an airline video entertainment system—with severe censorship of a key scene involving a lesbian character’s first sexual experience.
“There’s insane violence of bodies being smashed in half and yet a love scene between two women is censored from the film,” Wilde said, as quoted by Variety. “It’s such an integral part of this character’s journey. I don’t understand it.”
The scene in the film, between stars Kaitlyn Dever and Diana Silvers, depicts an awkward and bittersweet sexual encounter between the two teen characters, but involves no nudity. And yet, according to Wilde, a “third party” editing company slashed the scene.
“What message is this sending to viewers and especially to women?” Wilde wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “That their bodies are obscene? That their sexuality is shameful?”
Wilde said that the film, which must be selected by airline passengers “from hundreds of options” is prefaced by a “parental advisory.” But despite the warning, the film was heavily censored anyway, mainly for depictions of female sexuality.
Wilde pointed out that in one scene, the censors allowed characters to say the word “fuck,” but they bleeped the word “vagina.”
“They showed George (elegantly) deep-throating a microphone but couldn’t stomach a consensual love scene between two women,” Wilde added.
The two lead actresses in the high-school, female buddy-comedy, Dever and Beanie Feldstein, were also upset over the airline editing.
“We’re on the case to get this rectified,” Feldstein told IndieWire. “Our movie is a beautiful representation of the queer experience as young people. I’m a queer person. So we’re getting to the bottom of it.”
Dever was also stunned when told about the cuts, which she had not yet seen.
“I don’t even know what to say to that. I’m shocked,” she said. “That makes me so mad.”
Wilde did not name the airline on which she viewed the censored version of her film. But a statement by Booksmart distributors Annapurna Pictures said that the bowlderized version appeared on “Etihad Airways and others.”
Delta Airlines, however, issued a statement denying that it had requested removal of the lesbian sex scene from the airline version of Booksmart, adding that it works with an outside editing company, which actually carries out the censorship.
“Delta’s content parameters do not in any way ask for the removal of homosexual content from the film,” the airline’s statement reads. “We value diversity and inclusion as core to our culture and our mission and will review our processes to ensure edited video content doesn’t conflict with these values.”
Photo By DannyB Photos / Wikimedia Commons
