In our weekly series Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy, 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, we're taking a look at one actress who made a clean break from her squeaky clean Disneyimage by going full bad-girl, on film anyway. That's right, it's Anne Hathaway nude and the film is Havoc.
Hathaway's career was intertwined with the Walt Disney corporation from the beginning. Her first two films, released in 2001, were both Disney productions, as were her fourth, fifth, and sixth films. Havoc, the eighth film in her entire career to that point, was only her third non-Disney production and her first not overtly marketed to children. She also went topless in her next film also released in 2005, Brokeback Mountain, making her break from whatever wholesome image she'd cultivated to that point fairly sudden.
If your memory's not totally shot, you might remember that Anne gave the first indication she was eager to ditch her Disney image when she attended the School of Rock premiere in the fall of 2003. Anne went braless under a very sheer little black dress, and the flashbulbs clearly betrayed her lack of undergarments, giving us our first taste of Anne's ample breasts...
2005's Havocgot a raw deal when its distributor, New Line Cinema, decided to skip a theatrical release in North America, going direct to video in November of that year. Many folks wrote it off as a result, though this is no ordinary "teens behaving badly" film, however. This is the narrative feature directorial debut of Barbara Kopple, the Oscar winning documentarian behind such films as Harlan County U.S.A.and Wild Man Blues.The film's screenplay was written by Jessica Kaplan, whowrote thetreatment in 1993 when she was only 14and sold the full screenplay to New Line two years later for $150,000. Sadly she wouldn't live to see the film made, having been killed in a plane crash mere months before the film went into production.
Kaplan signed her deal long before Nikki Reed made a similar deal with her screenplay for Thirteen, but the novelty of this as a selling point wasn't used for Havoc. Perhaps it was deemed unfeasible or perhaps the tragedy of Kaplan's death made it a difficult angle from which to approach the film, but I think this information might have swayed more people to see the film. As it stood by the end of 2005, however, Havoc was not considered a success.
Anne Hathaway plays Allison, an affluent Los Angeles teenager whose entire world is built around a group of similarly affluent teens carrying on like criminals and gang members. Her first nude scene comes just nine minutes into the film when she ditches her bra before going down on her boyfriend in the backseat of his car after a party...
Anne wasted no time in getting the formality of a nude debut out of the way just nine minutes into the movie. This obviously does two things, first by dispensing with the suspense and build-up to the scene, and it also leaves plenty of additional screen time for more nude scenes. It's not long before the next one, a twenty six minute wait from the end of the last one. Throughout the film, one of Allison's friends, this kid named Eric, is making a documentary about real life on the streets, or whatever. He wants to interview her, but she just wants to tease him because all she wants to do is have sex apparently...
When she sees he's not interested, she gets aggravated and dressed, a state none of us likes to see a woman transition to...
As the story progresses, Allison and her friend Emily (Bijou Phillips) find themselves more turned on by the danger of hanging around Latino gang members instead of their current wannabe white suburbanite boyfriends. Allison falls for gang leader Hector (Freddy Rodriguez), but interrupts their lovemaking to tend to Emily, who has been assaulted—at Hector's direction—by another gang member...
The film wraps up in a way that it thinks is far more poetic and emphatic than it actually is—both girls and their gang boyfriends are gunned down off camera and we cut to Allison talking in her friend Eric's film about, basically, how parents just don't understand. It gets a little too artsy for its own good, and its failure to stick the landing makes it little more than a guilty pleasure. It's rather unfortunate that the film more or less turns into Larry Clark-lite, where deep, meaningful dialogue mixes casually with nubile naked bodies, rendering it all ultimately meaningless.
Originally Mandy Moore was cast as Allison, while Jena Malone was set to play her friend Emily. Both Moore and Malone left the project before cameras started rolling, eventually replaced by Anne Hathaway and Bijou Phillips, respectively. Phillips had been nude on camera prior to this, making her nude scenes somewhat less revelatory than Hathaway's. In terms of popularity here on the site, Hathaway's three nude scenes all rank ahead of one of Phillips' nude scenes, while Hathaway's non-nude scene in the film ranks ahead of Phillips' other two nude scenes. This is a long and convoluted way of saying that Hathaway is clearly the draw here, even fourteen years on.
There's something about a Disney girl breaking bad that will always appeal to people. Yes, there's that thrill for people who grew up or came of age at the same time as the celebrity themselves, but there's also that strong contingent of dirty old men who get a certain additional thrill from a former child star. Anne Hathaway's transition from Disney star to full-fledged actress—and eventual Oscar winner—took her right through this skin flick, a fact she's never lost sight of as her career has gotten exponentially bigger. Hell, she just went nude in the total clunker Serenity from earlier this year.
This wasn't a publicity stunt by Anne to give away some cheap thrills before buttoning down and becoming serious, a sin that many Disney stars commit. This was Anne Hathaway saying to the world, these are the kinds of movies I'm interested in doing now, adult movies for adult audiences. It has absolutely served her well, and others seeking to break out of the Disney rut might do well to follow her lead.
Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy...
—The "Real Sex" ofDon't Look Now
—Scarlett Johansson's Nude Debut inUnder the Skin
—The 2 Very Different Sex ScenesofBasic Instinct
—How Halle Berry's Nude Debut Led Her toMonster's Ball
—HowMulholland Dr.'s Legendary Lesbian Scenes Deepen the Film's Mystery
—Showgirlsand the Dangers of High Camp
—Rosario Dawson Laid Bare for Danny Boyle'sTrance
—Katie Holmes MakesThe GiftWorth Remembering
—Jennifer Connelly Comes of Age inThe Hot Spot
—Lisa Bonet's Bloody Nude Debut inAngel Heart
—Monica Bellucci Gets Brutalized in Gaspar Noé'sIrréversible
—Stanley Kubrick, The William Tell Overture, and A Clockwork Orange
—Wild ThingsPresents Every Man with His Dream Threesome
—Chloë Sevigny Goes Down in History forThe Brown Bunny
—Helen Hunt Does Her Best Nudity at 48 in The Sessions
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Anne Hathaway at School of Rock premiere image via Getty Images