When I Yell “Cut”
I was assured by a director friend earlier today that Donald Sutherland‘s version of the Don’t Look Now “did they or didn’t they?” dispute is the more reliable. That doesn’t settle anything, of course. But my source knows a thing or two about the shooting of intimate scenes and the odds of a non-essential visitor somehow sneaking a peek, and is persuaded that Peter Bart‘s memory might be a wee bit sketchy.
There was one couple that definitely didn’t pretend, he added: Sienna Miller and Hayden Christensen during filming of a sex scene in George Hickenlooper‘s Factory Girl. It’s also been long rumored that actual couplings occured during the shooting of Monster’s Ball (Billy Bob Thornton and Hallie Berry), Angel Heart (Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet) and 9 1/2 Weeks (Rourke and Kim Basinger)…not that anyone knows or has said for sure.
I would presume that none of these stories are true except for the Factory Girl one. Miller and Christensen were seeing each other at the time.
Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about the Kevin James outtakes from “Mall Cop?”
the Rourke/Basinger thing never happend
and the Hayden thing probably didn’t happen because he was dating someone else and Sienna was dating that guy who left his wife for her at the time.
We need someone to really deconstruct why this is even interesting. I realize that it is, but the knowledge doesn’t make the footage any more titillating. Is the Factory Girl scene now better than other top sex scenes where we know it’s fake? Not really. And it’s not new news to report that these stars are really fucking each other anyway. I mean, Sienna Miller is on location for 3 months, I don’t care who she’s dating, she’s going to have sex with someone during that time and it’s not going to be the key grip.
Mark, as a key grip, I find your comments very discouraging….
I fully expect Hickenlooper to crawl out of his grave to rebut this. It’s inconceivable (cue: Wallace Shawn) that they had real sex. We’re talking about a studio movie from a few years ago, not some kooky British indie from the roaring 70s. A Weinstein movie designed to promote Sienna Miller as a star, no less. If it got back to Harvey that Hickenlooper allowed that to go on he would never have worked in the business again.
Speaking of key grips……. I find it funny that the job of Key Grip is the go-to, movie joke job in Hollywood by people that giggle at the title and see it popping up down near the bottom of the credits.
“He worked on that movie? Ha. What was he, the KEY GRIP?” (snicker snicker)
Then you come out here, go to work and find out that it’s a nice union gig that pays a fat, chunky paycheck and is usually held by a pro that really knows his shit.
I salute ye.
Yeah, but a fat, chunky paycheck is a small consolation for telling people that you GRIP keys for a living.
AHAHAHAHAHA
The Lover (1992) with a very young (cue Lex) Jane March and Tony Leung supposedly shows penetration. The actresses generally wear a “patch” that prevent even accidental penetration & it wouldn’t be too shocking to find out that actor’s wear something as well (Rape! on the set!).
Allow me to once again quote from Provision Six of the Standard Terms of the Non-Union Daily Performer Agreement I signed when I appeared in “The Girlfriend Experience” : “Performer agrees to simulate such sexually explicit conduct only, it being agreed and understood by Performer that (s)he is not being hired to engage in actual sexually explicit conduct, that Producer does not give its consent for Performer to engage in actual sexually explicit conduct in connection with the Picture.” That’s a standard clause nowadays. I don’t know how long it’s been the case, but it’s apparently in every performer agreement in mainstream film. My collaborator in the scene half-joked that it was the first time SHE had ever seen such a provision.
I seem to recall a half-baked effort to STAMP OUT porn by charging the performers under Prostitution statute violations since they were being compensated for sexual acts. I don’t think it went too far, but still, you’d be opening yourself up to no end of liability issues.
Cronenberg noted in a book interview onetime that Irons and Bujold did the deal during a love scene from DEAD RINGERS.
And on that note, guess which major, gorgeous American leading lady really did fuck a key grip during the extended shoot of a big-budget Fred Schepisi film? The anecdote is notorious down here in the Oz film industry, and when I mentioned it to a cinematographer friend for elaboration he confirmed it, then said “To be fair, I’ve met that key grip, and he’s a really, really handsome guy..”
Barbara Hershey and David Carradine in Boxcar Bertha … or so they say.
Ryan, you are joking about Weinstein and Hickenlooper aren’t you? They are the ones who probably started the rumor to get people into theaters.
I remember Hickenlooper giving some vague answer when asked if it was true. He said they would have to ask Sienna when he could have just said no so the rumor kept going.
What does Hayden fuck Sienna with?
Sometimes I wish we live in a world where it’s normal to watch actors like Scarlett Johansson and George Clooney actually fucking for real in a movie and it’s accepted that it’s part of their job.
Because I really don’t see the point of having simulated sex scenes in movies.
Uh, yeah…the rumors about Hayden Christensen’s sex life seldom have anything to do with a girl.
Marisa Tomei fucked a grip while shooting Mira Nair’s “The Perez Family” in Puerto Rico.
As you can imagine, the guy got major points among crew members for doing so.
The way SAG is playing things, this could very well come to pass sooner than we all think.
On the Fred Schepisi thing, at first I thought “MERYL STREEP?!!#” but upon reflection decided it was probably Darryl Hannah or Michelle Pfeiffer.
What Cronenberg said concerning Bujold and Irons can, admittedly, be interpreted as per Thorne in comment #12, but it doesn’t necessarily MEAN that. I just happen to have the book right here! Cronenberg: “Maybe it’s naive of me, but I figured that if Jeremy and Genevieve knew that these people were going to tie each other to the bed and fuck each other–because it says so in the script, and we’ve talked about it, and they know I want to do the scene–we’re going to do it on camera. OK, I don’t need to see pubic hair or breasts even. But I expect they will do it. If they’re both attractive people, which is often the case, then at least between ‘Action’ and ‘Cut’ they can get it up for each other. I expect them to be able to act sexually hungry with each other. Good actors on location tend to be sexy together, unless they hate each other.”
I can see how one reading this can get the initial impression that Cronenberg wanted them to have unsimulated sex, but it’s ameliorated a bit when you get to the part where he says “ACT sexually hungry.” Anyway…
Glenn, very true. I personally hope they did it for real. Why, I don’t know.
Deaf Ears, spot on.
Disappointed that no one has moved beyond the well-known incidents here. Among the cognoscenti of such arcane cine-erotica, THESE are the ones that will scorch your BluRay player:
“On Golden Pond:” Not to get explicit but Fonda and Hepburn are on fire.
Ditto Wilford Brimley and Maureen Stapleton in “Cocoon.”
Illegal in 17 states and must see: Mr. Tinkles and Ivy in “Cats and Dogs”
Don’t even get me started on WAY underground bootlegs of “The Hellstrom Chronicles….”
New World (to shock an MPAA censor) screened a fake trailer of the Monte Hellman/Warren Oates movie COCKFIGHTER in which the announcer proclaimed, “He came into town with his cock in his hand — and what he did with it was illegal in 49 states!”
Anita Pallenberg and Mick Jagger in ‘Performance’
There was actual penetration in all of the “MacGruber” sex scenes.
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