In our weekly seriesAnatomy 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 take a look at another one of those infamous "did they really do it?" movies, where people heard it through the grapevine that Sienna Miller and theguy who played Anakin Skywalker really, you know, did it in George Hickenlooper's Edie Sedgwick biopic Factory Girl.
Right around the time Factory Girl was set to be released late in the fall of 2006, the film's star Sienna Miller was going through a very messy high profile break-up with Jude Law. Just a few months after the couple wed in late 2004, a story went public in which Law admitted to having an affair with the nanny of his children with ex-wife Sadie Frost.Though they tried to salvage the relationship, Miller and Law split for good just weeks before Factory Girl premiered, a fairly down time in the life of an actress otherwise on the rise.
The filmfloundered in limited release that Christmas season, plagued by claims of inaccuracies from many of the real people depicted—or at least hinted at—in the film. One of those people was Bob Dylan, who threatened the filmmakers early on and got them to further fictionalize the character alleged to be based on him, Billy Quinn, played by Hayden Christensen. Then in late January, 2007, as the film was set to break wider in North America, a story began circulating about how Christensen and Miller didn't fake their sex scene in the film. As far as I can tell,it seems to originate inthis story in Metro UK that cites an unnamed source to spill the secrets...
Movie insiders say the couple actually had sex in front of the cameras rather than simulate it. Their passions were fuelled by their reported romance offscreen. A source said: ‘It’s not simulated. They’re really doing it.’Their passions were fuelled by their reported romance offscreen.A source said: ‘It’s not simulated. They’re really doing it.’
Now, this film was being distributed by The Weinstein Company, who was clearly not above dubious publicity and marketing. They had a film on their hands they needed to sell tickets for, and were all too happy to float this story to the press. Director George Hickenlooper didn't help matters when he failed to deny the claims in the same Metro UK article...
‘You’ll have to ask Sienna about it,’ he said. ‘She and Hayden grew close during the filming. It was an emotional experience for all of us. We tried to portray it tastefully.’
By the end of the same day, Miller's rep refuted the story to TMZ saying...
"When you do a love scene," says her rep, "there is a minimum of five people in the room. There's no real sex and the scene proves she knows how to give a good performance."
Did you hear that Oscar voters? Factory Girl's still got a dog in the hunt! In truth it didn't, because it just wasn't a good movie. Harvey Weinstein decided he couldn't sell the movie on its content alone, as the critics had more or less savaged it, so he did what he always did and tried to sell the movie any way he could. If you've seen the scene, you know it's not real. It's cleverly—or rather, not so cleverly—edited to make you think those thrusts are the real McCoy. Weinstein wascolloquiallyknown as Harvey Scissorhands, often taking films away from directors and reediting them himself. Do you think he's above recutting these scenes to give them a little more juice?
I don't know if Hickenlooper's cut of the film was more coherent, but the released film is a convoluted mess saved mostly by Miller's performance as Edie Sedgwick, one of the many Andy Warhol muses who burned bright before fading away. The film depicts Warhol, as played by Guy Pearce, as aloof and uncaring. He's clearly a man with many sides, but those are the two which ring most prominently in this particular portrayal. Christensen's Billy Quinn rolls up about thirty minutes into the film, offering Edie an escape from Warhol's grip, but she ultimately chooses Warhol over him, sending her down the deep, dark path to despair—one of many things with which Dylan took umbrage.
Just past the one hour mark, the two get down to business in the most publicized scene in the film, but as you can see, it's all a bunch of unnecessary cuts designed to fool you into thinking something might actually be going on...
At the end of the day, it was all a publicity stunt meant to drum up heat around the movie, and though it backfired spectacularly at the time, it's kinda all anyone really remembers about this movie. So what turned out to be a rather crummy way to get people to see the movie—an obvious failure—insteadstuck to the film like glue. Hey, it's the one thing that stuck, so might as well run with it, I suppose. But sorry kids, there's no real sex happening here. Just a couple of actors and some flashy editing that are really selling you on the myth.
Check Out the Other "Real Sex" Editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy
—The "Real Sex" ofDon't Look Now
—How Halle Berry's Nude Debut Led Her toMonster's Ball
—Chloë Sevigny Goes Down in History forThe Brown Bunny
—The Strange Sexual Dynamics of Dogtooth
—Barbara Crampton Gets Head From a Severed Head in Re-Animator
—Two Highly Respected Actors Have Real Sex in Intimacy
—Oscar Winner Ang Lee Goes Full NC-17 with Lust, Caution
—Examining Nymphomaniac's Dubious Claims of Digital Double Trickery
