“Star Trek Into Darkness” has been in theaters for a week now, but the sci-fi sequel is still creating controversy with both casual and hardcore fans. The most recent talking point surfaced this week when some audience members responded angrily to a gratuitous shot of Alice Eve‘s character in her underwear.
A number of people involved with the film, including writer Damon Lindelof in an interview with MTV News’ Josh Horowitz, have spoken about the shot. Wednesday night, director J.J. Abrams appeared on “Conan” to address the controversy and attempt to make amends with a deleted scene that featured an equally gratuitous shot, one of Benedict Cumberbatch‘s villain in the shower.
Abrams explained how the Alice Eve scene ended up in the film as it did. He originally saw it as a “trade-off” for an earlier scene with a shirtless Captain Kirk. “I don’t think I quite edited the scene in the right way,” he admitted. Some people did feel like it was exploiting [Eve]. While she is lovely, I can see their point of view.”
The director said that he further hoped to balance things out with a scene of Cumberbatch in the shower that he eventually cut from the film. “We had a scene with [Cumberbatch] where we saw him actually taking a shower,” he said. “It’s not in the movie, but we had this. It’s one of those things that we ended up cutting.”
Only lasting a few seconds, the scene of Cumberbatch’s shower plays a little strangely, to say the least. With no context of when it would take place in the movie, it stands alone as an odd one-off.
In his interview with MTV News, Lindelof actually referenced the writing of a scene where Cumberbatch would be shirtless, but he didn’t think it ever went before the camera.
“As for the shirtless scene… we scripted it, but I don’t think it ever got shot,” he wrote. “You know why? Because getting actors to take their clothes off is DEMEANING AND HORRIBLE AND…
“Oh.
Right.
Sorry.”
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