Continuity.
It’s a vital element in cinematic storytelling. If your protagonist has short hair in scene one, it’s going to be awfully confusing if his locks roll past his shoulders in scene two.
Of course, there are more subtle aspects of continuity that require an eagle eye to pick up on. One Redditor spotted such a discrepancy while viewing the German film Free Fall then watching the Netflix show Sense8, which both feature actor Max Riemelt.
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Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
And while the observation has absolutely nothing to do with the story line of either narrative, we can’t help but commend the effort.
In a post titled “Why did the actor who plays Wolfgang get circumcised for Sense8?”, CRISDEARMERO wrote:
So I know this is probably not that important but it is really bothering me. I recently watched a movie that [Max Riemelt] is in called Freefall in which he plays a gay cop. There’s a shower scene where you see his penis and you can clearly tell that he is not circumcised, because you can see the foreskin clearly covering the head of the penis while it’s flaccid. Now, in the [Sense8] episode “Demons” he has his nude scene where there is a close up of his penis and it is suddenly circumcised, as the foreskin is no longer covering the head of the penis. Why would they do this? Did they think it would be more aesthetically pleasing or something?
We’d like to submit into evidence exhibits A & B — the scenes in question.
Thanks to this thing called the internet, it wasn’t tough to track either one down.
First, here are some GIFs and stills from the 2013 film Free Fall, which do indeed show the bishop is clearly wearing a turtleneck (LINK NSFW).
Compare them to these photos from Riemelt’s nude scene in Sense8 (LINK NSFW, OBVIOUSLY), and you’ll see where the confusion arises.
That being said, we’re not sure we can jump to the same conclusion that the 32-year-old actor underwent circumcision specifically for his role in Sense8.
Related: 13 Gay Sex Scenes That Went “Too Far” For TV
Actors, if you ever see language in your contract that requires getting cut, you should probably have a serious talk with your agent.
Commenters offered their own explanations, starting with the clinical — “There are medical reasons for circumcision, along with personal reasons.”
Another reader had a different take: “He is uncircumcised [in both productions] but has his foreskin pulled back instead to make him look circumcised [in Sense8]. An uncircumcised penis is probably too risqué for American audiences.”
Still not sold? Perhaps the answer is more of an “industry” thing, as another commenter suggested in this detailed breakdown:
I’d say it is a body double [in Sense8], which is silly because the producers should have found someone who was uncircumcised. Here are my reasons why I think this:
1) A few seconds before the [Sense8] close up, there is a shot of the actor’s back side, which gives us a sense of his hair pattern. Namely, he has a lot of inner thigh hair that is missing in the close-up. Certainly, this could have been shaved etc but it is more likely that it was a body double it seems because the hair color doesn’t quite match up either.
2) In the Orgy scene in the next episode [of Sense8] he appears to be wearing a prosthetic that is uncircumcised as far as I can tell. (different length and color from the previous scene) It also appears to have strange buoyancy issues – normal penises tend to be at least neutrally buoyant or float a bit, his appears to be straight up sinking.
3) Both are different from each other and from the scene in Freefall.
“That is a lot of analysis for a dick shot,” responded another to the above list.
At least we can all agree on that, if nothing else.
BigG
Hollywood body double. But if he did get cut, kudos for him. Much nicer and appealing when cut.
Jere
Seems like an easy enough question to answer…has anyone actually asked the actor or his representatives?
Juanjo
Don’t really care but I am going with the foreskin being pulled back for the the 2nd movie.
Avery Alvarez
Hopefully he didn’t butcher it with circumcision. Short stubby scarred knobs are not appealing.
Glücklich
Fucking Redditurds have too much time on their hands.
taggart
you queerty people are stupid ! honestly, anyone not cut can explain that its a simple matter to retract the foreskin (pull it back to expose the head) and it looks cut. The actor is European/german they do not circumcise and rightly so. I doubt very much he got cut.
Güstav
“Turtleneck”… Always so offensive. Keep it natural, non-mutilated. The real world appreciates it.
Gothrykke
It was pulled back. Simple answer for simple minded people pondering a simple question. The man isn’t an idiot.
Pistolo
I wouldn’t be surprised if some ignorant people behind the scenes suggested a prosthetic or circumcised actor. People in America (I’m American, btw) seem to think circumcised is the “default” and that only strange or unhealthy people are uncircumcised. A lot of Americans simply don’t know and/or don’t care that a German man or a man of any number of nationalities is likely to be uncircumcised, so it’s entirely possible they wouldn’t have thought to cast a double. If they did because they have some bias against uncircumcised men then that’s a shameful position to take.
It’s high time we just realize that this is a man’s natural state. EVERY man is born with a foreskin. People have been circumcizing for 4,000 years and there isn’t even the slightest evolution towards a foreskin-less penis. Some people rationalize as the will of god to circumcise, I think it’s pointedly anti-god.
Chris
As Gomez Adams once said: “either way, such bliss.”
Tracy Pope
I’m guessing the editor on this piece is circumcised and is used to seeing foreskin forward. Pulled back a lot of natural men appear circumcised. That’s the simplest answer for this slow news day item (I like Max Riemelt too 😉 ).
Kieran
That was a nice looking wienerschnitzel.
MarionPaige
I’m pretty sure Max was born in East Germany. I mean, what are the odds that a male child born in East Berlin would be circumcised? Also, if you watch all of FreeFall, you will see that Max’s body isn’t exactly like the body in the standing nude shot in Sense8. In fact, Max’ body nude in the pool in Sense8 isn’t exactly like the standing nude shot.
Sense8 will have a second season.
Cagnazzo82
Uncircumcised penises add major turn-off points so I like it the other way.
Why hide the penis in a burka when it’s so pretty to look at 🙂
Mykaels
I am not sure what is dumber: wondering if an actor got circumcised, or caring at all if someone is or isn’t to begin with.
Will it go in my ass? Great! Get to it.
Kangol
@Pistolo: Christian Germans. Muslims and Jews the world over, including Muslim and Jewish Germans, usually circumcise, as do some Christians, for non-medical reasons.
American audiences can deal with uncircumcised penises as the example of OZ demonstrated years ago. Also, in the film Shame, Michael Fassbinder parade around with an uncircumcised pen!s and received praise (and lust). There’s also Oliver Stone’s On Any Given Sunday, which featured a hot football player who was well hung and uncut, as well as nude cut and uncut men scrambling around in the shower. I remember people in the audience gasping when the football player’s gorgeous johnson appeared on screen.
Riemelt’s pen!s looks like it has a retracted foreskin or semi-cut foreskin in both films. Cut or uncut, a nice-looking penis is a nice-looking penis, though if it’s tiny, the hood makes it easier to find.
skilos
He looked cut in both films to me.
PretenderNX01
@skilos: yeah his littler head is visible in both scenes so I don’t know the difference.
http://41.media.tumblr.com/c1fa64f3d1ba29d98fd9f7d91f57817a/tumblr_nph4yaaehJ1u2bkg3o3_1280.jpg
http://www.omgblog.com/media/2013/11/post-402-0-18130600-1385025307.jpg
tarc
@Pistolo: Since there is a 30% higher chance of contracting HIV if you are not circumcised, and this is only one example of many STDs, there certainly is a reason other than aesthetic to be circumcised. There are often issues with foreskins that arise at puberty and in use that need to be corrected by circumcision. The idea that ‘natural is best’ is certainly not always true.
Bellamy
There is a perfect example of how stupid everyone is to equate the ACTOR with the CHARACTER. You’re not supposed to be seeing MAX RIEMENT’S penis, you’re seeing THE CHARACTER’S penis. Grow up people.
Bellamy
TARC, stop spreading the LIE that genital mutilation stops the spread of HIV!!! The United States has the planet’s highest HIV rates for a First-World nation and the vast majority of American males are genitally mutilated. That is because the foreskin produces Lysozyme WHICH KILLS HIV, and when your cut off the source of that HIV killer YOU HAVE A 100% CHANCE OF GETTING HIV WHEN EXPOSED TO IT!!!!
Curtispsf
@Bellamy Stop spreading misinformation about uncircumcised penises being protected from HIV infection. Study after study, especially involving African men, have documented the fact that uncircumcised men are at MUCH GREATER risk of contracting HIV. This is because the foreskin, like the tissue in the anus, is rich in Langerhans cells which are a favored target of HIV. If lack of circumcision protected men from HIV infection, then males coming from Africa who are largely uncircumcised, would not be coming down with HIV which they are…in staggeringly high rates. I, too, prefer uncircumcised men, but I do not let my preferences get in the way of facts. SHAME ON YOU !
da90027
BREAKING NEWS! Gay men shot in Orlando…people shot in Dallas and this story which is beyond ridiculous…as for the silly arguments above why do gay men feel the need to tell other’s what to do with their body? Cut or uncut do what makes you happy and stop forcing your opinions down other’s throats.
slinky49
@PretenderNX01: Thanks, what I thought/saw as well.
slinky49
Beautiful man, good actor. If and when we have sex, which is likely to be never, I’ll rush right back and update y’all since I’m really good at keeping my focus on what is really important, just like I’ve learned from all the Queerty posts and comments. And yes, I’m aware that I’m still reading and commenting. I like irony.
Teddy Quark
The Philippines is probably the only christian (83% catholic & 5% protestant) nation in which 93% of males are circumcised. Here, circumcision is like a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. So in the months of April and May when students are on summer vacation, health workers pan out to the suburbs and far flung areas to conduct circumcision en masse for hundreds of boys. In fact I was given a “German Cut” by a physician, are there American or British Cuts as well LOL! I have not yet encountered anyone who is uncut here, if someone were to find out that a man is uncut he will be the laughing stock and get one of the most derogatory remarks ever called upon a man. Guess I share with friends what its like to use boiled guava leaves to clean and treat our newly cut penises LOL, luckily we have a Guava Tree in our backyard. Soon I found out that many men are actually uncut and circumcision is not universally practiced. Most likely its circumcision or our heavy use of coconut oil (contains monolaurin a potent antiviral agent) which seemingly made the HIV pandemic passed over the Philippines. Dont know of any friend or acquaintance who died of AIDS at all. Honestly I also dont know how we got this practice of circumcision if its from our Islamic heritage or from the American influence which we just took to the extremes of making it widely compulsory. But hey there’s more to an intimate love affair than just sex so whether one is cut or uncut does not matter at all.
salumbre
Schwanzstucker!
JLAD1105
Only in the U.S. would the issue of male circumcision generate such controversy. There are few other issues that are so incredibly – and stupidly – misunderstood as the human penis. Males are born with foreskin, and they shouldn’t be subjected to penile butchery because of some idiotic, ancient religious and beliefs and certainly not because some people just don’t like the way it looks. Don’t like foreskin? Too fucking bad! Deal with it! No one is forcing you to like anyone or anything. But nobody has the right to impose their idea of aesthetics on an infant.
JLAD1105
@tarc: This is the latest bullshit rhetoric coming from the pro-circumcision crowd. For years they said circumcision prevents penile cancer in men and cervical cancer in women. Neither is true. Now they’re saying it prevents the spread of HIV and other STD’s. It doesn’t! But you would already know that, if you’d actually done your research first.
Curtispsf
@JLAD1105 Circumcision does not “prevent” HIV infection, only safe or PrEP sex does. That is a much more different statement then the fact that uncircumcised men are at a higher risk of getting HIV infection by unprotected “topping” of bottoms who are HIV+
Study after study, especially involving African men, have documented the fact that uncircumcised men are at MUCH GREATER risk of contracting HIV if their penis comes into contact with the HIV virus, whether it is vaginally or anally. This is because the foreskin, like the tissue in the anus, is rich in Langerhans cells which are a favored target of HIV. If lack of circumcision protected men from HIV infection, then males coming from Africa who are largely uncircumcised, would not be coming down with HIV which they are…in staggeringly high rates. I, too, prefer uncircumcised men, but I do not let my preferences get in the way of facts. And I’ve done my research. Just go onto PUBMED (which is the National Institute of Health) research arm listing ALL medical journal studies both in the US and abroad. There you will find numerous articles demonstrating a higher risk of HIV infection in uncircumcised men.
And for the record, I am AGAINST circumcision but I deal with the world the way I SEE it; not the way I wish it were.
JLAD1105
@da90027: Thank you!