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The Anti-Joys Of Screen Sex With Julia Roberts
Posted by Seth at 4:30 AM on July 19, 2008
British actor Dominic West has made his biggest impression playing roguish Detective James McNulty on The Wire, but he's also find some success on the big screen: he played Renée Zellweger's lover in Chicago, and was soon after cast opposite Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile. In an interview in today's The Guardian, he recalls the illuminating, grueling, and sometimes extremely annoying experience of working with Hollywood's highest-paid actresses:
"I learned a lot from working with [Renée]," he said. "She was so tough. I would hear the director say, 'Cut' and then wait for instructions; she would demand another 15 takes until she was absolutely happy with the scene. These leading ladies have it tough: they have to be girly enough to remain attractive but retain a steeliness to get their own way too. Plus, they seem to starve themselves all day to stay in shape."
Next came a role opposite Julia Roberts in Mona Lisa Smile. "The movie didn't make much sense. We would be given new scenes to film out of the blue which, it transpired, had been written by Julia's agent, who was doubling as a producer," he says. "I don't know what anyone was doing there. No one seemed to enjoy it. Especially not Julia. She had just got married and just wanted to be off having sex with her husband. Trouble was, she had married the cameraman on the movie. You can't really relax in a sex scene when the husband is staring right at you."
Perhaps West might consider starting a support group for non-porn actors scarred by their experiences of having to perform in front of their co-stars' significant others. We know Scott Speedman still wakes up in cold night sweats, reliving the nightmarish time director Len Wiseman kept shouting, "More animal! I want to see you impale her with your hairy weremember!" from behind a monitor as he oversaw Underworld: Evolution's steamy inter-monster sex scene with his wife, Kate Beckinsale.
- 'I just did my best De Niro impression' [Guardian.co.uk via HuffPo]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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Oxycontinmoron
Posted 5:10 AM 19/7/08
"These leading ladies have it tough: they have to be girly enough to remain attractive but retain a steeliness to get their own way too. Plus, they seem to starve themselves all day to stay in shape."
He says that as though they haven't been behaving that way since before he was the very model of a modern major general in his school production of Pirates of Penzance!
Oxycontinmoron
jasonelias
Posted 5:08 AM 19/7/08
@jasonelias: been, bee..
jasonelias
jasonelias
Posted 5:07 AM 19/7/08
I bet if West and Roberts did a movie years before, he'd be singing another tune. He would have boyfriend No 148.
jasonelias
Little Mintz Sunshine
Posted 5:05 AM 19/7/08
So does that mean we can rule Danny Moder and/or Len Wiseman out from the "Wanna F*** My Wife" contest or leave them on the list?
Little Mintz Sunshine
Shumina
Posted 4:56 AM 19/7/08
@Old No.7: Woah, I actually burst out laughing that time. Well done!
@asketchymess: It's horrible and will not make up for the waste of time the rest of the movie is. You'd get more action setting two paper dolls on fire together. Then at least you'd get to see them curl around each other in hot passion.
Shumina
Tiger_Tanaka
Posted 4:55 AM 19/7/08
@TurdBlossom: True. All that time wasted while he waits for them to re-inflate her.
Tiger_Tanaka
asketchymess
Posted 4:48 AM 19/7/08
I didn't know the Underworld sequel had that type of scene in it - now I know what I'll be watching tomorrow afternoon when it's 105 degrees outside. ThanK yoU!
asketchymess
TurdBlossom
Posted 4:48 AM 19/7/08
He better not star in anything that requires a love scene with Jessica Alba, if he thought Roberts and Zellweger were tough....
TurdBlossom
Old No.7
Posted 4:41 AM 19/7/08
Jockeys mount horses all the time with the owners/trainers present, what's your problem?
Old No.7
WGARefugee
Posted 5:42 AM 19/7/08
@Old No.7: Tom McGuane once said something to the effect that life would be a lot easier if the dismount in sex received the same attention as the dismount in horsemanship.
WGARefugee
asketchymess
Posted 5:31 AM 19/7/08
@Shumina: Sigh. Back to Plan B: Guess I'll just sit on the couch and do whip-its while listening to DuranDuran.
asketchymess
academyscreamer
Posted 6:00 AM 19/7/08
Long live Jimmy McNulty. He was a free born man of the USA.
academyscreamer
mothrafairy
Posted 5:57 AM 19/7/08
West is definitely onto something. The Moder-Laffoon Syndrome has, in fact, been pubbed in scientific journals and a variety of peer-reviewed...er...alternative weeklies?
mothrafairy
nick_r
Posted 8:01 AM 19/7/08
Gosh, Renee sounds like a dream.
nick_r
raincoaster
Posted 8:14 AM 19/7/08
I like this Dominic West fellow. Far too blunt to make it big in Hollywood, though. You're not supposed to say Julia Roberts has sex. You're only supposed to say she has children. The stork brought them.
raincoaster
gwendemarco
Posted 8:57 AM 19/7/08
Did either leading lady hit him upside the head? What exactly did he actually say in this piece?
gwendemarco
nick_r
Posted 9:29 AM 19/7/08
@StaringatScreen: It's possible he meant her manager.
nick_r
StaringatScreen
Posted 9:20 AM 19/7/08
How could her agent be acting as producer on this film? Isn't that illegal?
StaringatScreen
Losin_it
Posted 1:41 PM 19/7/08
Renee wanted to be off somewhere having sex with her then husband, Kenny Chesney.
Oh, wait.
Losin_it