Louis C.K. and Pamela Adlon Are Still Answering for That Controversial Louie Scene

By Cindy Davis | Miscellaneous | January 19, 2015 |

By Cindy Davis | Miscellaneous | January 19, 2015 |

The TCA winter press tour rolls on, and at yesterday’s FX panel, Louis C.K. seemed happy to dive right into discussions about Louie’s season 4 goings-on. As noted by attendees, “it took all of two questions to get to that scene in “Pamela: Part 1,” and it’s interesting to read the two participating stars’ comments this many months later. I’m sure everyone who watches remembers squirming as we saw Louie trying to get a kiss from Pamela — by chasing her around his apartment, physically blocking her, and finally pinning her in a corner and planting one on her as she tries to push him off. To just about everyone who watched, the scene played out as sexual assault, regardless of Louie and Pam’s relationship before or after that moment. And in the scene, Pam even says to Louie, “This would be rape if you weren’t so stupid,” and “God, you can’t even rape well.”

C.K. has defended the scene; “We thought it was funny when we shot it,” — but has hindsight change the comic’s take? Maybe not. The comic and actor disagrees with using that term to describe the scene, saying:

“I think you’ve gotta be careful with that word ‘rape,’ because it’s a real serious and bad thing.”

(Thing is, that word “rape” was in the script…)

“Sometimes, you put something out there and it gets a different reaction. To me, it was like a tussle…I’m pulling her and she’s pulling me away. We even thought it was funny when we tried it.”

More interesting is the evolution of co-star, Adlon’s comments. Back in July, the actress said she “never saw it like that [rape],” and referred to the scene (as does Louis C.K.) as part of the push and pull of Louie and Pam’s relationship. But now she isn’t quite so defensive of the way the scene played out.

“When we got through the scene, I said I think we might be in trouble. Someone’s going to be mad.”

Via Hitfix:

Adlon says that he initially described it to her in boxing terminology. “He said, ‘It’s like I’m closing off the ring, I’m closing off the ring,’” she says. Adlon says that the way they played it ended up being slightly different and she wondered if they’d be in trouble… Adlon says that she has three daughters and adds, “I didn’t feel like it was rape-y, but…”

I love Louis C.K., but I wish he’d just admit it was a misstep. Or if his intention for the scene was to showcase Louie fucking up (yet again), make that clear. He did admit to reading articles about the scene: “”Of course I read all this shit! I’m fascinated with what you write about the show.”

C.K. says Louie’s fifth season will be sillier; “The feeling that I was having when I wrote this last season—I’m done writing it now—was just a very goofy feeling, a very playful feeling going into this season. [The stand-up is] much sillier than it was in the last few years and much more anecdotes and characters, so I think this season is probably going to feel more like that.”

FX will air his new tour, “Louis C.K. Live From the Comedy Store,” this spring, and the network also announced an order for Pamela Adlon’s C.K. directed pilot, Better Things. Adlon will play an actress and single mother to three daughters.

Louie returns to FX April 9th.

Cindy Davis, (Twitter)