Film & TV3 min(s) read
Kerry Fox's partner once opened up about what it was like watching her unsimulated oral sex scene.
The 60-year-old actress, from New Zealand, starred alongside Mark Rylance in Patrice Chéreau's 2001 erotic drama, Intimacy, which became known for steamy scenes between its lead actors.
Among the film's most talked-about moments was a brief scene in which Fox performed unsimulated oral sex on Rylance.
At that time, Fox was dating Alexander Linklater for around six months, and he later wrote about how the film affected him while their relationship was relatively new.
Linklater penned for The Guardian that he and Fox initially wondered how the film would convince audiences that the sex scenes were real.
They were then surprised to learn from the director that parts of it would be very real.
For Linklater, that immediately raised difficult questions about jealousy and trust.
"Forget Kerry - this wasn't going to be easy for me. I was in the flush of the most important relationship of my life and had no doubt that I was also, in the immortal words of John Lennon, a jealous guy," he said.
"If the film went ahead, I would have to wait while she left for rehearsals to practise sex with Mark, and came back home," he continued. "Then, I would have to wait as she went on set, undressed with Mark, took him in her arms, helped him reach a state of arousal, and came back home again."
"And eventually, I would have to watch, along with a sizeable public, in the magnificent magnified detail of widescreen cinema, everything they'd done together. Or, after editing, not quite everything. Which is the worst? Seeing nothing, or something, or everything?" he added.
Linklater also described the effect the demanding shoot appeared to have on Fox.
He said she'd come home with "carpet burns" and look "exhausted and almost ill" during filming.
However, he said, "Once I had seen the film... the jealous urge to find out how far Kerry and I could trust each other disappeared."
More than decades after Initmacy was released, Fox is now married to Linklater, with the couple sharing two children.
Back in 2012, she reflected positively on the movie, telling Metro it was "one of the best pieces of work I've ever done," and remarking: "I have no regrets."
Meanwhile, Rylance has spoken far more critically about his experience while making the film.
He said it was the "most difficult job he'd ever had," adding: "I was convinced it was a vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London," he told The Guardian in 2016.
"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. I wish I hadn't made it," he shared.
