‘Law & Order: SVU’ Boss Previews John Waters’ Return in Camming Episode

Meredith Jacobs January 13, 2021, 2:00 pm

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John Waters - Law & Order SVU Floyd 2205 — NBC

John Waters returns to Law & Order: SVU in the January 14 episode, and just like there were changes made to the episode due to the pandemic, his character, pornographer Floyd Cougat was affected as well.

In “Turn Me On, Take Me Private,” the SVU squad investigates the world of camming, where people pay to watch virtual, mostly sex-related activities. In the episode, one user (played by Tony Award nominee Alex Brightman) decides to meet his fantasy (played by another Tony nominee, Eva Noblezada) in person, leading to a role-play session becoming violent.

“Both of their lives shatter,” showrunner Warren Leight tells TV Insider.

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While the episode was written before the COVID-19 pandemic, Leight says, with some retooling “it turned out to be perfectly suited for our so-called Zoom lives. The pandemic brought a flood of sex workers, and newly unemployed service workers, into camming. The pressure to compete in a crowded marketplace caused some cammers to push limits.”

As for Waters’ Floyd — first seen in Season 21’s “Dance, Lies and Videotape” — he catches “the camming wave,” Leight previews. “Part businessman, part pornographer, part First Amendment protector, Floyd, too, is dancing as fast as he can.”

Brightman and Noblezada (below) are just two of several theater stars appearing on SVU right now. As Leight explained on Twitter on January 5, “We are trying to hire every Broadway actor we can while we and they wait for the curtains to rise again.” That includes “off, and off-off, and off-off-off,” he added.