There’s Full-Frontal Male Nudity On HBO’s Latest Series, ‘We Are Who We Are’

Luca Guadagnino, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind fan-favourite, Call Me By Your Name, has returned with coming-of-age story for the small screen, We Are Who We Are.

The HBO-Sky series, which debuted on September 14, follows two teenagers, Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón), who live on a military base in Italy. It explores their burgeoning friendship — Fraser is artistic, shy, and volatile, while Caitlin is more outgoing, but also dealing with her own nagging insecurities. The series, Guadagnino’s first for TV, also grapples with issues of sexuality and gender identity.

In the first episode, Fraser, who has just moved into the base with his two moms, is out and about, familiarizing himself with his new surroundings. He notices a clique of other army brats and is too self conscious to approach them. In his bumbling embarrassment at being noticed by one of them, Britney, he stumbles into a shower room filled with naked soldiers.

And we don’t have just shots of their ass to tell us they’re naked. They flash some cocks as well.

There is also another scene of frontal nudity, which occurs after Britney befriends Fraser and brings him along with the rest of her clique on a trip to the beach. While the other teenagers who are all so familiar with each other frolic in the water, Fraser is left by himself. And they tease him, with one of them taking off his trunks and throwing it in his direction.

During an interview with Variety, Luca Guadagnino, who directed all 8 episodes of the show, was asked about his decision to put full-frontal male nudity in the show, a rarity for American films and television shows. And he said, “I always felt embarrassed when I saw in films the camera strategically not showing something. I also think that to show nudity — male, female — if it’s in the context of something that makes sense, is a way to liberate the eye. HBO has been wonderful in endorsing my choices. They could have felt provocative or radical, but I saw them as organic. By the way, there is nudity in general in my movies. That’s part of living. We are naked part of the day and part of the day we are dressed up. I always think I should pay respect to that condition of being human. Sometimes we’re naked, so why not?”

Check out the clips below: