--- ---  # _House of Cards'_ Beau Willimon on How Porn Has Freed TV Writers  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 13, 2015 9:25 PM UTC  Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey in Season 3 of Netflix's House of Cards Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey in Season 3 of Netflix's House of CardsDavid Giesbrecht—Netflix  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 13, 2015 9:25 PM UTC In an [interview](http://time.com/how-tv-sex-got-real/) for a TIME story on the evolution of sex on television, _House of Cards_ showrunner Beau Willimon, praised the porn industry—and not for the reasons you might think. Thanks to porn, Willimon argued, TV writers no longer feel obligated to insert unnecessary sex scenes in their TV shows to attract viewers. “I think there was a pressure for a time for shows and movies to provide that service, and it always felt false because it was like, ‘Here’s the titillating part of the movie.’ It was a marketing technique,” he says. “Now you can’t put anything on TV that’s more pornographic than what’s easily available with a few mouse clicks. So you can really focus once again on character, and those characters can engage in sex the way actual humans do.” Read the full story on what writers from shows like _Girls_, _The Americans_ _,_ _Transparent_ and _How to Get Away With Murder_ did with that newfound freedom [here](http://time.com/how-tv-sex-got-real/). "House of Cards'" Beau Willimon on How Porn Has Freed TV Writers ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3857808/house-of-cards-beau-willimon-on-how-porn-has-freed-tv-writers/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3857808/house-of-cards-beau-willimon-on-how-porn-has-freed-tv-writers/"},"headline":"House of Cards' Beau Willimon on How Porn Has Freed TV Writers","datePublished":"2015-05-13T21:25:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:10:49.809Z","description":"\"You can’t put anything on TV that’s more pornographic than what’s easily available with a few mouse clicks. So you can really focus once again on character\"","url":"https://time.com/3857808/house-of-cards-beau-willimon-on-how-porn-has-freed-tv-writers/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd3eb29151cd62a5/6987813455a8590c22a8608c/hoc_ps3_019_h.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcd3eb29151cd62a5/6987813455a8590c22a8608c/hoc_ps3_019_h.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey in Season 3 of Netflix's House of Cards","caption":"Robin Wright and Kevin Spacey in Season 3 of Netflix's House of Cards","creditText":"David Giesbrecht—Netflix","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3857808/house-of-cards-beau-willimon-on-how-porn-has-freed-tv-writers/","name":"House of Cards' Beau Willimon on How Porn Has Freed TV Writers"}}]}] ```