Shia LaBeouf insists he will shoot a "real" sex-scene in a forthcoming movie which also stars Nicole Kidman and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The trio will soon begin work on Lars Von Trier's indie film 'Nymphomaniac', which follows a woman and her "hidden erotic desires".
After one MTV journalist enquired as to the meaning of "real" sex scene, Shia was unequivocal, replying, "It is what you think it is. There's a disclaimer at the top of the script that basically says, we're doing [the sex] for real. And anything that is 'illegal' will be shot in blurred images, but other than that, everything is happening". It's not clear whether the scene will also include Kidman, though it's probably more likely to be Gainsbourg given her history of playing more explicit roles (particularly in Von Trier's 'Antichrist'). The move is hardly a surprise - Von Trier's material has been heading this way for years. His use of sexually explicit images in 'The Idiots' started a wave of similar scenes in the likes of 'The Brown Bunny' and Michael Winterbottom's '9 Songs'. In 1998, his company Zentropa became the world's first mainstream film company to produce hardcore pornography. The new movie follows Gainsbourg's character and her sexual history (her husband is played by Stellan Skarsgard, though she is in love with LaBeouf's character). During a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Shia spoke of being "done" with the big-budget Hollywood system that fails to give "visionary" filmmakers a chance, saying, "[The studios] give you the money, then get on a plane and come to the set and stick a finger up your ass and chase you around for five months". This summer, he'll star in 'Lawless', a film he helped produce, as well as the independent productions 'The Company You Keep' and 'The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman'.
Von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac' will be split into two films - one softer version, and one more explicit. German funding body the Nrw Filmstigtung has backed the movie with $1.6 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter and it will be shot entirely in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia, where Von Trier shot Antichrist. It will be the auteur's first movie since 'Melancholia', which made headlines after the filmmaker joked about sympathising with Hitler at the Cannes Film Festival, consequently being dubbed persona non grata.