Last Tango in Paris. Maria Schneider. Marlon Brando with fistful of butter.
Well, for the actress herself, Sharron Stone was incredibly humiliated with the ever famous upskirt shot from Basic Instinct. I’m not exactly sure what she thought the scene was going to be like, but when she saw it at the opening, she left the theater in a huff and threatened to sue the director. She felt very betrayed by it, and I would think having your cooter displayed infront of a theater full of strangers would be rather humiliating.
One scene in Boogie Nights always makes me cringe: Dirk Diggler being paid to masturbate in some guy’s truck. Mark Wahlberg is far from a great actor, but in that scene, he was disturbingly good. His facial expressions so strongly showed his disgust for himself that I find it really hard to watch that scene. (That, and what immediately follows.)
Also, same movie, Rollergirl’s experience in the limo with the college kid they pick off the street. Heather Graham truly scared me in that scene.
This is only my opinion, but I think Sharon Stone’s outrage over Basic Instinct was bogus. If you come to the set sans underware and wait as the fill light and camera are positioned to shoot up your skirt, you can’t honestly be too surprised by the result. I understand she was struggling to make that transition from B-movie bimbo to legitimate actress, perhaps the shot lingered on the nether regions more than she was promised, but she knew full well what she was doing.
I knew a make-up person who worked on If these Walls Could Talk (HBO). From what I heard about Stone’s behavior, she deserves whatever career pitfalls she may encounter.
The Ned Beatty Deliverence scene tops my list, I was never able to see him in anything else without that coming to mind.
I don’t feel sorry for any hollywood piece of shit actor. The money they get for doing nothing is pretty near obscene in my book.
Eh, thats just me, though.
“Lets get them meek bastards NOW!”
I hope you’re referring to “Pulp Fiction”, not those Radio Shack commercials with Vanessa Williams.
PF would be my nomination for most degrading movie, not just scene.
Wow—honey, you don’t have “issues,” you’ve got a subscription.
If you don’t place any value on the craft of acting why are you even in Cafe Society? Trust me it is not ‘nothing’.
Grousser
I need some clarification.
Are you saying that if you were an actor you could not act these scenes? Are you having sympathy for the actor or the character they are playing, because they are two different things you know.
Anthony Hopkins does not eat peoples liver. Hannibal Lecter does.
None of the things in your OP happened to those people. They happend to those characters and they are staged. Ned Betty did not get raped he ACTED like he was being raped.
I can’t find the article now, but Roger Ebert makes a pretty good case for Isabella Rossellini’s nude public stagger in Blue Velvet. At least when Dorothy was being savaged by Frank, the scene was shot in reasonable privacy. (For the record, Rossellini apparently denies feeling humiliated).
The thing to remember about whether or not a scene is humiliating for the actor is not what the actor is being asked to do; it’s the circumstances in which the scene is filmed. If you’ve got a closed set, a small crew, and a trusted director, it’s possible for the actor to explore some difficult and dangerous material in relative emotional safety. If you’re in public and your director isn’t protecting you (or, worse, is actively manipulating you), then it can be quite degrading indeed.
Oh, and this:
…doesn’t even merit a response.
A toss-up between Ben Stiller choking the chicken in the bathroom in “There’s Something About Mary”, or Jeff Daniels dressing up as a dog in “Dumb and Dumber”. I wonder if they see those roles as low points in their careers…
I doubt Stiller feels that was the low point in his career…it pretty much put him on the map so to speak.
On the other hand, Daniels dressing like a dog isn’t nearly as bad as him squatting on the loo blasting out the excessive laxitive Carrey’s character gave him. THAT might be the low point.
This is pure Bullshit! (in my opinion) If these actors are so humiliated by doing something that is going to be filmed and shown around the world for everyone stupid enough to shell out money to see, why the hell don’t they just say “No thanks!”? I’ll give you a hint: They do it for the money! They got to support that Ferrari and Cocaine lifestyle! “Explore difficult and dangerous material in emotional safety”? Are you kidding? Would this be “Charlie’s Angels” or “Bruce Almighty”?
Certainly these pampered individuals have some kind of free will and can turn down a roll they feel is degrading. What? And have to get a real job? The old butt-to-butt scene doesn’t sound too bad all of a sudden.
Sorry. My opinion of the vast majority of those involved with moviemaking are they are too lazy/spoiled/pampered/privledged or whatever to do something more important with their lives. They are about the same as whores if you ask me (and nobody really did! sorry about that!), meaning they do little or nothing for big bucks and the question of integrity is only a question of how much money.
But hey, why the hell not? Living in a mansion and driving a Ferrari is a pretty good deal! So, you go, girl (and boy!)
(these views do not necessarily include serious “actors” like, oh, maybe Larry Olivier or Pauly Shore. :D)
She said she loved me like a brother. She was from Arkansas, hence the Joy!
There is a mighty big world outside the dimmly lit (movie) theater recesses. “Cafe Society” isn’t confined to the Bile What Spews from Hollywood.
Why do the artists that bitch the loudest about free downloading get so much radio airplay?
Regarding the subject matter of this thread, I think a distinction should be made between graphic and difficult-to-watch scenes in films of merit (e.g., Pulp Fiction and Breaking the Waves) and scenes in schlocky incompetently-made movies that, while not necessarily sexually exploitive, are so embarassing and career-ending that they completely destroy whatever credibility an actor or actress has. CalMeacham gave a perfect example of this with a polyester-clad Joan Collins battling the plastic titular characters in Empire of the Ants. Another good example is Bela Lugosi in any of Ed Wood’s movies. John Travolta thoroughly embarassed himself in Battlefield Earth but since he was one pretty much responsible for that project (and apparently thinks it’s worthy of a sequel), he’s excluded on grounds the humiliation was self-inflicted. Basically, for a scene (or movie) to be so degrading to an actor or actress that you pity them, there has to be the sense that this once-notable performer was so desperate for work that he or she was willing to take any role.
Of course the obvious answer is what Divine does at the end of Pink Flamingos, but that’s hardly a Hollywood film.
Rebecca deMornay literally licks Antonio Banderas’s bare butt in Never Talk to Strangers , which I thought had to be a bit degrading. The bondage scene twixt Dana Delany and Paul Mercurio in Exit to Eden had to be a bit embarassing, as well as Rob Morrow having his bare tucas spanked (you could see the red marks) by elderly Dody Goodman in the horny-kids-go-to-the-beach film Private Resort (which also featured a naked Johnny Depp, but not as embarassingly.) David Thewlis being topped by Leonardo DiCaprio in TOTAL ECLIPSE was uncomfortable as well, and the gay sex simulation on QUEER AS FOLK leaves nothing to the imagination, which must be a bit odd for straight actors particularly.
As far as non-nudity nadiers, Patty Duke wearing a fake spider belly in CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW had to be pretty “tell me again how selling AmWay works?” thought provoking for her. At one point Martin Landau, who ironically later won an Oscar for playing Bela in ED WOOD, was reduced to dinner theater roles and worse: playing the mad scientist in HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS ON GILLIGAN’S ISLAND (for which his training with Strasberg and Hagen and his friendship with James Dean must surely have inspired him). Oscar and Emmy winner Ray Milland as the white bigot whose head is grafted onto Rosey Grier’s body in THE THING WITH TWO HEADS must also have brought back surprisingly few memories from Hollywood’s glory days.
Jennifer Jason Leigh’s sex scenes in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I don’t which one was worse, the one in the dugout or the quickie with the sleazeball. Both were creepy and uncomfortable.
Also, while he wasn’t much of an actor, former Kennedy husband Peter Lawford sank so low due to bad investing, drugs, high living, more drugs, higher living, and pissing off Mr. Sinatra and the Kennedys that he began appearing in porn films (not as a participant, just as “window dressing” to give it a filament thin touch of legitimacy) and even plugged sex toys in porn mags. I seriously doubt that he knew anything incriminating about JFK/RFK and his friend/neighbor Marilyn Monroe’s death (which a lot of conspiracy theorists claim) because if he did I’m sure he’d have sold the info).
Other actors (using the broadest definition of the term) who turned to porn include Dana Plato, Lisa Loring (the original Wednesday Addams), Jaimee Foxworth (the daughter who disappeared on FAMILY MATTERS), and Stephen Geoffreys (the perennial nerd in several movies and Evil Ed in FRIGHT NIGHT and who changed his name to Sam Ritter to do gay porn).
Ah. We are, I suspect, being whooshed. I can’t believe anyone is this insanely hate-filled about performers (except maybe for mimes). I’m probably biased, because some of my friends are actual working actors, bit players and movie stars, but I’m pretty sure gatopescado must be having us on.
Do a search, Eve. I’d say 40% of the time gatopescado strolls into a thread just to spread his cranky vibe.
I’ve come across his shtick before - he’s just one of those dudes that must post his negative opinion on whatever subject strikes his crotchety fancy. He doesn’t seem to be trolling as much as strongly opinionated and grouchy, IMO.