05/03/2024
"I'm fascinated by relationships and how they work or don't work. I'm much more interested in the small picture than the big one, because I think the minutiae and the breath in one's face are much more interesting than the landscape out there."
Director Adrian Lyne didn't want the s*x scene between Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction" (1987) to take place in a bed "because it's so dreary, and I thought about the sink because I remembered I had once had s*x with a girl over a sink, way back. The plates clank around and you'll have a laugh. You always need to have a laugh in a s*x scene." During filming he yelled at the couple, praising them. "If they know that they're turning you on, it builds their confidence." He used a handheld camera to film it "so there was no problem with the heat going out of the scene."
To get the desired reaction shot from Ellen Latzen (who played Douglas' daughter in the film) during the scene where she witnesses her parents have an intense argument, Douglas was behind the camera bullying her and threatening to take away the stuffed unicorn she was holding, saying, "Look at that stupid unicorn, I'm gonna throw it in the garbage," which is why she begins crying and hugging it tighter. After the he yelled "cut" he immediately apologized to her and said he was only kidding and Michael Douglas hugged her, with Douglas stating years later in an interview, "I felt pretty guilty. But you've got to do what you've got to do."
Close still has the knife she used in the movie hanging in her kitchen, stating: "It's beautiful, made of wood and paper. It's a work of art! And it's nice for our guests to see it. It lets them know they can't stay forever."
"I like movies that create discussion; I love it when they haven't forgotten about your movie by dinnertime and they're still arguing about it the next day - that's what a movie should do, it should create discussion." (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Adrian Lyne!
