The
Julian
Sands Page:
A
Note
on Nudity
A
number of the images I have found of Julian on the Internet (indeed,
a large number of the references in general that I found to Julian
through the Internet search engines) were video captures of his nude
scenes from various films, by and large intended for a gay male
audience (not an uncommon characteristic for Julian's admirers).
While some of these images were on sites protected by a variety of
methods from being accessed by minors, others were not. If you are
interested in such things (and do not have or wish to purchase or
rent the films the images were taken from), you may certainly search
out these sites on your own. (SEE ADDENDUM BELOW)
I
have, however, decided not display those images on this site (nor
will any video capture sessions that I do myself include such
images), as they seem purely of prurient interest, and not of real
concern in respect to Julian's work or private life. Indeed, out of
respect for Julian himself, I choose not to display them.
Which
is not to say I regard those nude scenes as obscene or pornographic
in any way. Rather, I consider them a vital and entirely natural part
of the roles and films in which they occurred, and the fact that
Julian was so willing to do them is entirely a credit to his devotion
to his calling. How many actors would have refused to be seen naked
in any context, let alone in so many contexts and in so many films?
I'm sure it doesn't hurt to have a body more closely resembling Greek
statuary than any other mortal man, but nonetheless, it is a brave
choice, and one I celebrate. I strongly feel that if we as a modern
society were more at home with seeing nudity, the taboos of sex would
be lessened, and we would thereby end up with a healthier attitude
towards these matters. And that is something which would keep people
from being tempted into irresponsible behavior purely for the purpose
of breaking a taboo.
On
an interesting side note, my exhaustive search for everything
available concerning Julian on the Internet turned up the following
graduate paper title: "The Secret
Figleaf: The Nude Julian Sands in A Room with a View, Gothic and
Warlock II: The Armageddon ," Cinema and the Postmodern, Kent
SU, October 1994.
Now, that would be interesting reading!
ADDENDUM
(August 31, 1998): Today's perusal of the search engines was the last
straw for me on this issue. I had previously decided to tolerate
without much complaint the abuse of Julian's name and image by nude image/pornographic
sites which advertise their sites (usually requiring payment for
admission) through search engines with descriptions indicating that
they have nude and/or pornographic images of Julian. It's
unscrupulous at best and thievery at worst, as they are profiting
from images which they do not own. However, while I am myself
offended, it is the prerogative of Julian and his representatives to
pursue these matters.
But these new
offenders are by far the worst of the bunch, listing descriptions
indicating that their images were obtained by hidden cameras in
Julian's bedroom or bathroom, some of which (they claim) revealed
homosexual sexual activity on his part, and thereby guaranteeing that
they will draw in the audience they need for their sites to be
profitable. (I have yet to see such an image of Julian which was not
a video captured still image from a film.) Add to this the fact that
the pages these descriptions reference are, in fact, nothing but
blank pages except for a single advertising banner for the website in
question, and it's clear that these people are even lower than the
unscrupulous profiteers that I had previously classified them as.
I have
therefore decided to issue a call to arms among all of Julian's
on-line fans. As Julian's representatives have apparently not chosen
to take these people to task, either for their profiting from his
image (which again, they do not own) or for damaging his reputation
with their descriptions of the images (more on this later), it is,
for now, up to us to do what we can to make it clear to them that we
will not fall for their ruse, and moreover, that we will do our best
to insure that their fraudulent listings in search engines will not continue.
To accomplish
this end requires a simple step: when you discover a site listing
which indicates that it has Julian Sands content, but which actually
does not when you visit it, send a brief e-mail to the search
engine's administrator with the site's URL, the description it lists,
and a summary of what was actually on the page when you visited. It
may also be helpful to use the "View Source" option in your
browser to see if the page is using META-tags to fool the search
engine, and let the administrator know if that is the case. This goes
for non-nude/pornographic sites as well. (I have found a few
music/video sites which send you to their main page with no reference
to Julian at all -- unless the PAGE you're being sent to mentions
Julian, they are misusing the search engine.) You may also want to
let the administrator of the server on which the page resides know
about the problem as well. The administrators' e-mail addresses can
usually be found in a Help area on the search engine or
service-provider's main page. Please remember to be polite to these
people -- they are helping us to rid the Internet of this scourge.
If you question
whether these sorts of sites have a real negative affect upon
Julian's reputation, I will relate to you a request for information
on Julian which I also happened to receive today. The person who
wrote to me wanted me to settle for her an argument between herself
and a co-worker over whether or not Julian had appeared in any
"adult" (read pornographic) films or still photographs. The
co-worker insisted that he had. As the line I draw between "adult
films" and films with sexually explicit scenes at the point
where sexual acts are no longer simulated, but performed for real, my
answer to her was a categorical "no".
Faced with all
of the advertisements for these websites a mere few hours later, I
suddenly realized that any person searching for Julian's image on the
Internet would certainly be confronted with these advertisements, and
did they not already know better, they could easily perceive them to
be a clear, undisputed indication that Julian was a regular performer
in "adult films" or had routinely posed for nude
photographs. This does him no credit as an actor, let alone as an
actor of the calibre at which he should be regarded. It frightens me
to think that this woman's co-worker might be forever convince that
the male lead of an Oscar-nominated film like A Room With a View
was, in reality, a porn star.
I don't know
why people feel compelled to turn his nude scenes in mainstream films
into tawdry, pornographic romps (perhaps it sells more site
memberships?), but for the record, among the projects which Julian
has appeared in, the closest thing to an "adult film" is
his appearance in the HBO late-night series "Strangers",
which routinely included graphic sex scenes, but which by no means
falls into the category of pornography. The research I did on the
series when it was first mentioned to me that Julian had appeared in
it indicates that the sex scene in Boxing Helena is far more
graphic than anything he would have done for "Strangers".
So, again, why turn him into a porn star? The only thing I can come
up with is that it draws more people into a paying site if they think
they're going to see Julian have real sex, whether it is with a man
or a woman.
This is doubly
offensive to me as these people are turning profit not only by
illegally using Julian's name and image, but in that they are turning
what are often non-sexual nude scenes, romantic sexual scenes or even
explicit sex scenes that are completely within the context of their
respective films into tawdry, dirty displays of flesh and sex. And
they do this merely by the descriptions they use for their sites and
by putting the images in the backdrop of the rest of the images they
display. They not only glorify the degradation of a beautiful,
pleasurable act and a beautiful body, they intentionally profit by
it. At Julian's expense. At society's expense. (I'm tempted to start
a "Make Sex Holy" campaign, but I doubt I'd get anywhere...)
Well, I'll get
off my soapbox now. I just want to encourage anyone who's at all
bothered by the abuse of search engines and their users, or by the
abuse of Julian's image and name for profit, to take whatever steps
they can to put and end to it.