The producers of Normal People have said they are “hugely disappointed” after sex scenes from the show appeared on Pornhub.
A 22-minute compilation of intimate scenes from the BBC series, which stars Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones, was uploaded to the adult website.
Following a takedown request, the video has been removed from Pornhub.
Executive producer of Normal People, Ed Guiney, told Variety: “We’re hugely disappointed that excerpts from the series of Normal People have been used in this way. It’s both a violation of copyright and more importantly, it’s deeply disrespectful to the actors involved and to the wider creative team.”
He added: “We have taken appropriate steps to require that the content be removed from the platform with immediate effect.”
Pornhub said the video has been removed from its site. Corey Price, VP of the platform, said: “Pornhub is fully compliant with the law. We respect all copyright requests and as soon as we become aware of the existence of these types of videos on our site, we have them removed.”
Normal People has been widely praised for its responsible and realistic depiction of sex. In a recent interview with The Independent, Mescal said Hollywood has “played a massive role” in making sex so taboo in our society.
“It portrays sex in a way that isn’t true to life,” he said. “They have to hold their hands up and say they haven’t helped with that. I also grew up in a time when porn has been a massive educator in terms of how people see sex.
"It can be a really tricky transition from watching scenes like that to encountering sex in your own life for the first time. That’s why I was so excited when I read the Normal People script.”
The pirating of sex scenes from TV shows is an issue that has also affected Game of Thrones, with HBO forced to take action against Pornhub in 2017.
