Jason Chambers, the captain on Bravo’s “Below Deck Down Under,” condemned the on-set behavior of two crew members that resulted in their firing.
In a video shared to Instagram on Wednesday, he thanked the production crew for not only bringing the inappropriate conduct to his attention, but actively stepping in and stopping a potential sexual assault while the cameras rolled.
Chambers addressed the two incidents, saying, “this is not acceptable.” In his caption, he wrote, “Respect boundaries.”
In Monday’s back-to-back episodes, Luke Jones and Laura Bilesklane were both fired from the reality series. In the footage, a naked Jones was seen sneaking into the bed of sleeping crew member Margot Sisson after a night of drinking. A production member called out his name on camera, asking him to stop. Jones slammed the door in the production crew’s faces, although they eventually succeeded in getting him to leave. Jones was immediately taken off the boat and fired the next day.
After Jones’ exit, Chambers told the remaining crew, “We had an incident last night and I want to stress that this is a place where we respect each other. Our cabin is our safety zone. That door is our boundary. That door is not to be opened unless it is consensual. To walk into someone else’s room without consent [while] indecent is my limit.”
Chambers also fired Bileskslane, who ignored his requests for boundaries by trying to massage deckhand Adam Kodra after he had gone to bed, and for telling a shaken Sisson, “If [Luke] comes naked in my cabin, I would have been, ‘Hello! Yes!’
“After my multiple speeches with the crew about boundaries and respect, did you not go to Margot and say, ‘Poor Luke. I wish he had come in and seen me?’ You’ve disrespected exactly what I actually set out to do,” Chambers told Bileskslane. “I can’t go on with you as part of the team in the environment I am trying to set.”
“Below Deck Down Under” is not specifically a dating show, but other reality series in that genre, including “Bachelor: Paradise Island” have seen lawsuits over how much sex is discussed on- and off-camera.
