# Move over Caligula, big budget porn movies have a new champion **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 23, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-caligula-big-budget-porn-movies-have-a-new-champion/322976 "2005-09-23T00:08:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-caligula-big-budget-porn-movies-have-a-new-champion/322976/41 "2005-09-24T22:15:16Z")
So is it fair to say that the ‘name’ actors in the movie like McDowell knew it was going to be a hard-core film? ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2005, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-caligula-big-budget-porn-movies-have-a-new-champion/322976/42 "2005-09-24T22:17:41Z")
I meant, “Is it fair to say that NONE of the big name actors knew it was going to be a hard-core porn film?” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-caligula-big-budget-porn-movies-have-a-new-champion/322976/43 "2005-09-24T22:39:58Z")
Well, like the movie or not, I remember one of the historians on The History Channel’s series on Sex in Ancient Days (or something to that effect) saying that what went down in Caligula was a lot closer to what went on in the Caeser’s orgies than anything you’d see in other, more respectable films. ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-caligula-big-budget-porn-movies-have-a-new-champion/322976/44 "2005-09-25T01:26:34Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > I meant, “Is it fair to say that NONE of the big name actors knew it was going to be a hard-core porn film?” According to the link that **Cervaise** provided: \* “Peter O’Toole and John Gielgud claimed to have been unaware hardcore sex footage was being shot for the film.”\* No word on Malcolm McDowell. ---
**Author:** ![Dusty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@Dusty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dusty)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2005, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-caligula-big-budget-porn-movies-have-a-new-champion/322976/45 "2005-09-25T01:55:57Z")
That makes little sense and sounds to me like they’re just after-the-fact distancing themselves from the project. The screenplay _always_ had sex in it, right from the very inception. It wasn’t tacked on at the last minute, it was an integral part of the story. The scenes Bob Guccione added were mostly (poor) reshoots of scenes already in the film. How any of them could not have been aware that the film portrayed scenes of graphic sex is baffling. Sir John Gielgud, for one, was certainly aware. He originally was cast for the part of Tiberius Caesar, but pulled out because he thought the film verged on pornographic. Later, he reconsidered its artistic merit and took the smaller role of Nerva (Peter O’Toole taking the Tiberius part). He’s quite free to change his mind back again, of course, but to claim he was completely in the dark is ludicrous. Bob Guccione did a lot of terrible things to _Caligula_ (mainly in his incredibly sloppy editing), but he didn’t significantly change the story or its content. The lesbian scene, a few additions to the Imperial Bordello scene… that was about all he created himself and all the actors could legitimately have been unaware of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/move-over-caligula-big-budget-porn-movies-have-a-new-champion/322976.md?page=2)