Featured Image Credit: Pathé
Topics: Celebrity, Film and TV, Sex and Relationships
Emily Brown
Bones and All actor Mark Rylance has opened up about why it was so 'painful' starring in a film which featured an unsimulated sex act.
The 64-year-old actor and playwright has starred in many gripping and intense films, whether it be 2022's The Outfit or 2015's Bridge of Spies.
However, there was one film which was even more extreme given it's heavy focus on sex.
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If your favorite film starring the actor is 2016's The BFG, then prepare for that view of him to be slightly shattered.
In 2001 release Intimacy, Rylance took on a rather different role when starring alongside Kerry Fox, playing a London musician who meets up with a woman once every week for a series of sexual rendezvous.
And well, the film certainly doesn't hold back and neither did the direction it was taken in - the two lead actors actually ending up performing an unsimulated oral sex scene.
Oh and if that wasn't enough already, there's also a sex scene which left viewers 'in little doubt that penetration has occurred', according to researcher Tanya Krzywinska's analysis.
Understandably, Intimacy proved controversial at the time and today has a middling score of 66 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Some viewers have praised the film as 'imaginative' and 'interesting', but as Rylance looked back on the film in a 2016 Q&A, he made clear it wasn't worth it.
In response to a fan who asked why he chose to do the film, Rylance wrote: "Intimacy was the most difficult job I've ever had. Hanif Kureishi's work and Patrice Chereau's words convinced me it was a very true and vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London.
"I know Hanif Kureishi's writing couldn't have been more intimate and revealing, but I found the making of the film and the subsequent publicity and personal attacks very, very painful. And I wish I hadn't made it."
As for the oral sex scene in particular, Rylance recalled feeling pressure to perform for the camera.
“It soured me on my life two months,” he said, adding: "At that point I didn’t have the confidence as a film actor to say no. Now I think a lot of actors that people say are difficult are actually just being sensible.”
Fox's own partner was among those who shared their thoughts on the film, as he admitted he was a 'jealous guy'.
"It wasn't going to be a trick," he wrote for The Guardian. "If Kerry accepted the role, the sex in Intimacy would be far more demanding than the normal perfunctory erotic interlude of most mainstream movies. To some indefinable degree, this sex would be real."
If you're intrigued to see it for yourself, well, then you can stream Intimacy on Prime Video now.