Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman wowed the audience with Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ in 1999. The film is based on a 1926 German novella titled ‘Traumnovelle’. However, Stanley adapted the screenplay to the then-present-time New York, with Tom and Nicole playing reel-life husband and wife. The film had the fraternity shaken due to its graphic orgy scenes.
‘Eyes Wide Shut’ revolves around Bill and Alice, who have been in a happy marriage, but one night when Alice tells Bill about desiring to have an affair with a naval officer, it surprises Bill. One night, he discovers a secret society and spends it exploring his desires and whether he may desire sex with another woman. In the film, Stanley wanted to dehumanize sex. During one of the interviews, Tom Cruise talked about how he controlled a boner while shooting the orgy scenes.
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Tom Cruise Credited His Acting Skills To Prevent A Boner On ‘Eyes Wide Shut’
The 1999 Stanley Kubrick film ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ was revolutionary in its positive portrayal of sex and infidelity without dehumanizing the act of intimacy or any exploration of it.
In the film’s climatic scene, Tom Cruise avoids any sexual encounter, but in the end, the society conducts an orgy ritual that restores Bill’s faith in his marriage.
During a promotional interview, according to Hard Drive, Tom Cruise said that he avoided the boner during the orgy scenes. He credited his acting chops for avoiding any arousal, saying, “That sh*t’s ALL ME. It took all my acting training in the WORLD to not pop a boner. But that’s why I’m the best!”
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Nicole Kidman Was In Charge Of Her Sex Scenes
Nicole Kidman, the real wife of Tom Cruise then, played the reel wife in ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. During an interview with The New York Times, Nicole talked about how she supervised the sex scenes during the filming of Stanley Kubrick’s erotic thriller. She had it in her contract to have the final say in the final cut of the film.
Nicole Kidman said, “When I went to work with Stanley Kubrick, he was like, ‘I’m going to want full-frontal nudity,’ and I was like, ‘Ahh, I don’t know.’ So we came up with a great agreement, which was contractual. He would show me the scenes with the nudity before they made it into the film.”
Nicole continued, “Then I could feel completely safe. I didn’t say no to any of it. I’d wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to be me standing there nude and everyone laughing at me. I was protected, so I got to explore a complicated marriage and the way in which Tom [Cruise’s] character is having those jealous images.”
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