Jesse Williams is pulling back the curtain.
The actor shared how he feels taking the stage after a video of his full-frontal performance in the Broadway production Take Me Out got leaked on social media—and how the viral clip has impacted audience turnout.
"It has not affected the performance," Jesse said during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter on June 6. "But it certainly improved ticket sales."
The Grey's Anatomy star noted that he is still "processing" how to feel about the nude leak, which was taken by an audience member despite the theater's no phone policy.
"There were things that came out that, and if you can be lighthearted about it, you can laugh it off," he said. "But then also you think about what actually happened, and what it took: You walked in and agreed to put your phones away, and you agreed that you would not film what we were doing—it's a private, sacred space where we're doing something—and you violated that, and you didn't just violate it, you violated it and then said, ‘F--k it, let me put it on the Internet for the world,' so that's not good."
Despite being violated during the "unfortunate" situation, Jesse said his drive to perform has not changed after the experience.
"I've got a show to do tonight, and people came from all over the world to see this show, so you push through," he said. "So I have to be of two hearts about it. One is it's not the end of the world, I have to do a terrific show eight times this week, and I can't let it pervert or seep into that experience."
After the nude video of Jesse went viral, the Second Stage Theater came to his side by releasing a statement. In their message, the theater noted that they "worked to ensure" the privacy of the cast was maintained by "creating a phone-free space with locked phone cases at all performances."
"We are appalled that this policy has been violated and unauthorized footage of our acting company has been posted," the statement read. "It is deeply unfortunate that one audience member chose to disrespect the production, their fellow audience members, and, most importantly, the cast in this manner."
Moving forward, the theater has promised to hire more staff members to ensure the phone policy is respected and said it will work to get the nude footage of Jesse taken down from the web.