12 hours Ago By People
Rob Lowe has a hard time seeing sex scenes as “brave" because in his heyday, they were practically “required," he says. The St. Elmo's Fire actor, 60, sparked a conversation about the evolution of NSFW scenes with Kristin Davis during the Feb.
27 episode of his podcast, Literally! With Rob Lowe . The chat kicked off after Lowe mentioned a particularly steamy film in his filmography, Masquerade , because it also starred Davis’ Sex and the City costar Kim Cattrall . “I love that movie,” he said of the 1988 romantic thriller, a declaration that Davis, 60, enthusiastically seconded.
The movie, which also starred Meg Tilly , got “good reviews,” Lowe recalled, “but the studio kind of dumped it because they thought it was too sexy.” Related: 'Empowering,' 'Deeply Humiliating' and 'Gross': Stars Share How It 'Really' Feels to Film a Sex Scene "I know, can you imagine such a thing?” the SATC star said, prompting Lowe to point out that, in the studio’s defense, the sex scenes were “pretty gratuitous.” “But it was great .
It was sexy. I wish we had sexy movies now,” Davis pushed back, as Lowe agreed: “Nobody has sex scenes in movies anymore.” Though, the SATC star remembered, there is a recent movie that falls in the “sexy” category: 2024’s Babygirl .
She still hasn’t seen the film, however — but Lowe has. Recalling the erotic thriller, which follows a kinky affair between a tech CEO ( Nicole Kidman ) and intern ( Harris Dickinson ), Lowe reversed his earlier claim about the lack of steaminess in today's movies. "I take it back.
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It’s pretty great. It's pretty hot,” he said of the film. Davis, meanwhile, pointed out that it is still “unusual” that the A24 flick is an outlier, not the norm.
“We’re like, ‘Oh, thank God someone made a sexy movie,’ like, it’s an unusual thing now,” she said. Related: Kristin Davis Didn't Feel 'Protected' Filming Early Intimate Sex and the City Scenes: 'Hid in My Dressing Room' (Exclusive) Lowe, meanwhile, said that what grinds his gears about the conversation around sex scenes today is the tendency to call actors “brave” just for participating in them. “Oh, when they’re like, ‘It’s so brave.
She’s so brave.’ She’s ‘brave’ because she has a sex scene. Like, that’s brave now, and in our day, it was required,” he said, before asking Davis if she remembers the “page 73 rule" — a "rule" actors previously used to determine whether a screenplay had any NSFW scenes.
“There was the page 73 rule. Back in the day, the sex scene was always on page 73,” he explained, recalling that “you didn’t have to read the whole script — you just went to page 73, because that middle second act.” “But now it’s so brave,” he added sarcastically.
“It’s so brave.” Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Both Babygirl stars have been quite open about their experiences filming the movie’s steamier scenes that some, as Lowe pointed out, have dubbed "brave.
" At a Venice press conference last year, Kidman, 57, said she never felt exploited while working on its intimate sequences. "That's what made it so compelling, was being in the hands of [director Halina Reijn ], because I knew she wasn't gonna exploit me," she told reporters last August. "I mean, however anyone interprets that, I didn't feel exploited.
I felt very much a part of it. It's the story that I wanted to be a part of, that I wanted to tell. And every part of me was committed to that.
" Plus, she added, “There was enormous care taken by all of” the cast and crew. “We were all very, very gentle with each other and helped each other." Read the original article on People.
