Jesse Williams Addresses Broadway Play Nude Scene Leak: 'Theater Is A Sacred Place'

Jesse Williams has finally broken his silence about the leaked photos and video of his nude scene in the Broadway play "Take Me Out."

The 40-year-old actor said he would not be dissuaded from giving the show his absolute best despite the controversy.

"I'm not down about it," the "Grey's Anatomy," alum told the Associated Press on May 12.

"Our job is to go out there every night, no matter what… I'm not really worrying about it. I can't sweat that. We do need to keep advocating for ourselves. And it's wonderful to see a community push back and make clear what we do stand for, what we don't. Consent is important, I thought. So, let's keep that in mind universally," Williams added.

"Theater is a sacred space, and everybody doesn't understand that. Everybody doesn't necessarily respect or regard that in a way that maybe they should, or we'd like," he further said.

Williams stars in "Take Me Out" as Darren Lemming, a Major League Baseball player who comes out as gay and deals with the resulting backlash.

The production opened at Second Stage's Hayes Theater last month and will be showing until June 11. The show even earned Williams a Tony nomination Monday — the same day images of his full-frontal nude scene went viral online.

The actor also shared during the interview that he had no idea the play included a full-frontal nude scene until he read its script. "If somebody had just said, 'It's [a] play with nudity,' it would have been framed differently. But the nudity is honest. It makes sense. It's not salacious. It serves the story. It puts the audience in an interesting position to relate to empathize with the characters," he explained.

Second Stage issued a strong statement condemning the incident a day after the photos and video were leaked online, according to Entertainment Weekly.

"Second Stage Theater has worked to ensure the privacy of the Take Me Out company 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. 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," the company said.

The theater company also said its security would be beefed up. Since the incident took place, "Take Me Out" audience members have been asked to put their phones in a locked pouch for the duration of the show.