Celebrity4 min(s) read
Michael Douglas praises Matt Damon for going 'from the rear' in their wild sex scene
Michael Douglas has praised Matt Damon for going "from the rear" in their wild sex scene.
The Hollywood stars appeared in the 2013 biographical drama film, Behind the Candelabra.
Based on the 1988 book by Scott Thorson and Alex Thorleifson, the movie explores the last ten years of the life of pianist Liberace and his relationship with Thorson.
More than a decade later, Douglas has reflected on one of the movie's most memorable scenes, revealing how director Steven Soderbergh reacted after filming wrapped.
Michael Douglas recalls filming an intimate scene with Matt Damon
Douglas, 82, recently joined Happy Sad Confused host Josh Horowitz to promote his new memoir, One Helluva Ride, and spoke about his experience filming the explicit scene.
Recalling the scene, he praised Damon's willingness to embrace such a daring role at the height of his career.
"How brave is Matt?" he said, joking: "Prime of his career... you know, going from the rear.
"I remember shooting that scene and Stephen Soderbergh," he said, sharing that he was told to "lie across" while Damon was behind.
"I say, 'Okay.' And action. And Matt takes off going. I'm supposed to be taking poppers... We do the whole scene. And then he, 'All right, cut,'" he continued.
The scene was completed in a single take, leaving the director with little to say.
"He puts the camera down. He takes his glasses off, but he says, 'I have no notes,'" he said.
Matt Damon previously opened up about the X-rated scene
Damon previously talked about filming the X-rated scene in 2013, admitting that he struggled with how to convincingly pretend to make love to his co-star because he had never seen a sex scene between two men.
He said: "Michael Douglas and I were really curious about how director Steven Soderbergh was going to film the sex scenes. In the script, it just said, 'Scott makes love to Lee.'
"We asked him, 'Thanks for the note, but how do we actually do that?' Eventually, Steven put a camera under the bed, so you only see us partially and it never looks pornographic."
Despite the unconventional scene, Damon said he had no concerns about revealing his backside on camera, joking that he had finally followed in the footsteps of Douglas' former co-stars Sharon Stone and Glenn Close.
"I finally know what Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) and Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction) felt. Everyone remembers seeing Michael's a** in Basic Instinct," he quipped. "This time, you see mine, it's a bit blurry but in prime position in the middle of the screen, with a Brazilian tan line... It's that level of detail that makes your career!"
The Jason Bourne star said the hardest part of shooting the movie was watching Douglas portray Liberace's declining health and eventual death from AIDS-related complications.
Douglas had previously undergone treatment for advanced cancer, making the demanding scenes particularly emotional.
"The reason he pulled it off so amazingly is because he'd acquired the wisdom, depth, and distance of someone who has known illness and beaten it," he said.
Douglas once claimed cancer was linked to oral sex
A few years after his diagnosis, Douglas told The Guardian that his cancer was directly linked to oral sex.
"Yeah, it's a sexually transmitted disease that causes cancer. And if you have it, cunnilingus is also the best cure for it," he told the outlet.
The actor later denied making the comment, though the publication stood by its report and released the audio.
In his new book, the dad-of-three reflected on the impact the cancer had on his body, as well as how the diagnosis affected his loved ones.
He revealed that he dropped around 40 pounds while going through treatment, which was seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy.
"At first, the pain was bad but manageable, but by the third week I was in real trouble," he penned.
After months of aggressive radiation and chemotherapy, he is now cancer-free.