Featured Image Credit: Film4
Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film
Joshua Nair
Poor Things star Mark Ruffalo admitted that he didn't feel completely comfortable filming sex scenes for the new x-rated film.
He revealed there were a number of reasons as to why he felt this way, which left him feeling 'worried'.
The Avengers actor plays lawyer Duncan Winterburn who ultimately seduces Emma Stone's character, Bella Baxter, from her regular life to join him in travelling the world.
In sex scenes between the two, they can be seen demonstrating several positions around a hotel room, although one scene was so graphic that it needed to be edited in accordance with UK Law.
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People who have seen the film have even described it to be more disturbing than Saltburn, another controversial title released recently.
Despite this, Stone won a Golden Globe for her performance in Poor Things, with critics receiving the film well.
While filming though, Ruffalo had some moments of uncertainty, particularly during graphic scenes.
Speaking to Perfect Magazine, the 56-year-old said: "I didn’t know if I could pull this off. I’ve never done anything like this before. So, like, the sex scenes,
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"Am I too old to be doing that kind of stuff? Does anyone want to see that?”
While speaking to Variety's Actors on Actors series, Ruffalo again admitted that he was initially hesitant: “I was like, ‘Do I have to?’ All I can hear is, ‘Nobody wants to see your old a** anymore. Maybe you shouldn’t be doing movies like that anymore’.
During sex scenes, the character of Duncan gets to know (quite well) Bella's 'hairy business', as referred to in the movie, as she goes through a journey of sexual and personal self-discovery.
Ruffalo admitted that he needed more padding to help him film the scenes, telling Marvel co-star Robert Downey Jr. in a Variety video: "Do you know I had an a** pad in? My legs were, like, four inches bigger. My calf was four inches.”
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In the end, the actor found a way to cope with the raunchy scenes: “I mean, it’s my least favorite part of it, but I also saw it as very comedic and also, like, an extension of the physical comedy that we were already finding.
"So it was just another way to tell the story.”
He also revealed that he wore a corset and shoulder pads to give director Yorgos Lanthimos the silhouette he wanted, as he wanted Ruffalo to 'look like a bird'.
Stone, on the other hand, had no problems with being nude on camera, with Lanthimos even revealing that she had racy suggestions for some of the x-rated scenes.
Poor Things is out now in cinemas across the UK and Ireland.