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Rob Lowe has shared his confusion over the response to the sex scenes in Nicole Kidman’s film Babygirl.
The movie, which arrived in UK cinemas in January, sees Kidman star as a high-flying CEO who becomes embroiled in an affair with a younger intern, played by Harris Dickinson.
Lowe, 60, said that although he thought Babygirl was a “pretty great” movie, he was puzzled as to why Kidman, 57, was hailed as “brave” for filming the erotic moments when sex scenes had previously been “required” as part of an actor’s job.
“They’re like, ‘Oh, it’s so brave, she’s so brave,’” he said during a conversation with Sex and the City star Kristin Davis on his podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe.
“She’s brave because she has a sex scene. That’s brave now. And in our day, it was required.”
The West Wing star went on to explain a concept he described as “the page 73 rule”, whereby a script’s 73rd page would often tend to feature a sex scene as a way of getting through a tricky part of the movie’s narrative.
“In the day, the sex scene was always on page 73,” Lowe said. “You get a script and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, how gratuitous. Do I have to be naked in this? Let me check.’ And you didn’t have to read the whole script. You just went to page 73.
“That middle second act… What do you do? It’s the toughest sledding in storytelling so they Blue Lagoon it. But now, it’s so brave.”
Lowe did concede, though, that Hollywood’s wariness towards sex on screen wasn’t an entirely new phenomenon, claiming that one of his Eighties movies was “kind of dumped” because it was “too sexy”.
“Kim Cattrall and I did a movie called Masquerade together, I love that movie,” he said. “It got good reviews, but the studio kind of dumped it because they thought it was too sexy.
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“It was pretty gratuitous, but it was great.”
Babygirl director Halina Reijn previously explained that using an intimacy coordinator allowed her and the cast to achieve sex scenes that appeared “way more risky”.
“You can get more extreme sex scenes that look way more risky than when you’re thinking, ‘No, let the actresses find out themselves,’” Reign told IndieWire.
“That’s such a dated idea of what sexuality is and how to approach it. I really am against it.”
She also criticised directors who claim that their performers don’t want to work with intimacy coordinators, who help to choreograph sex scenes and ensure that they are performed safely.
“That makes no sense,” she said. “It is also for your safety as a director and for everyone. What if there is a misunderstanding? It’s just amazing to have a person like that on set. And if you are creative and talented enough of a director, you can pull it off. Trust me.”
