In our weekly seriesAnatomy of a Nude Scene, we're going to be taking a look at (in)famous sexscenes and nude scenes throughout cinema history and examining their construction, their relationship to the film around it, and their legacy. This week, Jennifer Jason Leigh takes over Bridget Fonda's life—and her boyfriend's dick—in Single White Female!
The sexploitation flick came back into fashion in a big way in the early 90s. Basic Instinct kicked off the revival in March 1992,and it lived on in multiplexes for several years before moving mostly to the direct-to-videoarena in the late 90s and into the new millennium. Hitting theaters a scant five months after Verhoeven's blockbuster, Single White Female capitalized on the newly hot marketplace to the tune of $84 million worldwide against a budget of $16 million. Not too shabby for a domestic thriller that's mostly a three-hander.
Author John Lutz's 1990 book "SWF Seeks Same" was adapted for the screen by Don Roos, who would go on to his own indie success later in the decade with The Opposite of Sex. Barbet Schroeder, a veteran of the French New Wave and former documentarian, had moved to the US to make films in the 80s. He landed a Best Director Oscar nomination for his English language debut Barfly, and Jeremy Irons won an Oscar for Schroeder's Reversal of Fortune, so the Iranian-born director was something of a hot commodity at that particular moment. He came aboard as both producer and director in 1991.
The story centers around a software designer named Allie, who breaks off her engagement with Sam after discovering his infidelity. She decides she needs a fresh start and a roommate to help share the cost of living on the Upper West Sideof New York City. Not wanting just any old so-and-so off the street in there, Allie places aclassified ad seeking a Single White Female and seems to find the perfect person in Hedy. Despite some red flags like Hedy's obsession with a dead twin sister she has always sought to replace, Allie warms up to Hedy, who soon voluntarily takes on the role of Allie's protector. Before long, that morphs into an obsession with Allie and a plan to take over her life.
On the film's Blu-ray released in 2018, Schroeder confirms that Bridget Fonda was the first actor to sign on to the project and therefore given her choice of role. She chose to play Allie because she found it to be the more challenging role of the two, though it was franklya wise choice on her part because Jennifer Jason Leigh was born to play Hedy. It's interesting to note this intersection of their careers as Fonda and Leigh are both daughters of legendary Hollywood actors—Peter Fonda and Vic Morrow, respectively. While Leigh had a head start on Fonda in terms of pre-SWF, Fonda made up for lost time, racking up sixteen creditsafter her official film debut in 1987'sAria, including Godfather Part III.
Now more than ten years removed from her breakthrough as the naive butoptimistic Stacy Hamilton in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Leigh had bucked traditional stardom to take a more unconventional path, playing loose cannons and damaged souls in good measure in films like The Men's Club,Heart of Midnight,Last Exit to Brooklyn, andMiami Blues. She came into SWF hot off of playing the rather conventional female lead in Ron Howard's Backdraft the year prior, not to mention some serious awards buzz—that unfortunately never manifested—for her work in Rush.
At this point in the film's story, Hedy has changed her whole look to mimic Allie's look, much to Allie's consternation. Allie, meanwhile, has discovered some scary secrets about Hedy, namely that her name isn't really Hedy, and that she drowned her own twin sister when they were nine. Poor, hapless schmo Sam (Steven Weber) eager to get back in Allie's good graces, comes over to see her one night. Unfortunately for him, she isn't there, but Hedy is and she tricks him into thinking that she's Allie. Immediately after his suspicions are aroused, Hedy confirms she's not Allie and he hilariously orgasms in her mouth.
It's some twisted stuff, particularly when you consider that—SPOILER ALERT for a 30 year old movie—he'll be dead in less than five minutes screen time, killed by Hedy with a stiletto heel to his eye...
Yeah, he should've known better, but to be fair, it was Bridget Fonda that got into bed with him, so honest mistake. On the aforementioned director's commentary, Schroeder confirmed the long discussed urban legend that it actually was Fonda who got into bed with Weber at the start of the scene and was replaced with Leigh once the two are in bed getting busy. That is indeed how it went down as Leigh was still being made up to look like Fonda, but the crew and everyone else were ready to go, so the shot of Hedy disguised as Alliegetting into bed with Weber was actually done by Fonda herself—you can tell by the beauty marks on her shoulder.
From Single White Female, Fonda skyrocketed in terms of immediate stardom, though she was obviously on her way up prior.The following month she wasone of the coreensemble for Cameron Crowe'sSingles,she kicked ass againthe next year in Point of No Return, andhad a fairly steady career that saw her rack up an additional thirty-plus credits. Following a near-fatal car crashin 2003, however, she retired from acting and married composer Danny Elfman, having a son together in 2005, and never coming back to the industry.
Jennifer Jason Leigh, despite being excellent in SWF and even landing an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain, didn't see any sort of career bump after the film was a massive success. She just continued steadily working, appearing in big mainstream films like Dolores Claiborne andRoad to Perditionand television like Weeds andThe Affair.It became increasingly clear in the 90s and 2000s, however, that shefavored the indie world, especially once she hooked up with writer/director Noah Baumbach in the mid-aughts. Five years after the couple split, Leigh landed her long overdue first Oscar nomination for her work in Quentin Tarantino's 2015 flick The Hateful Eight.
So while Steven Weber obviously fell for it, there probably aren't many out there who'd confuse Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh. But that one glorious moment when their careers intersected produced a film that's managed to stay in the zeitgeist for nearly 30 years now. That kind of star power synergy can't be denied.
Catch up withour most recent editions ofAnatomy of a Nude Scene
—Monique Gabrielle Ensures Bachelor Party is an Affair to Remember
—An Entire Generation of Men Saw Bare Breasts for the First Time inCaddyshack
—Maggie Gyllenhaal Holds Nothing Back inSecretary
—Demi Moore Took a Record Paycheck to HeadlineStriptease
—That Time We All Fell in Love with Kelly Preston inMischief
—What Happened with Marisa Tomei's Nude Scene fromUntamed Heart
—Cybill Shepherd is Uncomfortably Relatable inThe Last Picture Show
—Penelope Cruz Does Very Different Nude Scenes Playing the Same Role inOpen Your EyesandVanilla Sky
—Joyce Hyser Becomes an 80s Icon inJust One of the Guys
—Charlize Theron Lands on the Map with2 Days in the Valley
—SirensMay be Plural, But All Eyes Were on Elle MacPherson
—Eva Green's Star is Born in Bertolucci'sThe Dreamers
—Phoebe Cates Takes a Dip and Becomes a Legend inFast Times at Ridgemont High
—Kim Basinger Gets All Wet for Mickey Rourke in9½ Weeks
—Molly Ringwald Does Her Only Topless Scene inMalicious
**Click Here to Read All Past Editions of Anatomy of a Nude Scene/Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy**
