The erotic scene Jane Fonda refused to make even steamier: “I wouldn’t do it and he stormed off the set”
Sex scenes have always been a topic of much debate between film lovers. At what point does a movie’s use of erotic sequences make it softcore porn? And how ethical is it for the actors involved – do they really want to be getting completely naked with their co-star and act out some incredibly intimate acts for the whole world to see? Various actors have admitted to being pressured into nude or sexual scenes throughout their careers, leading many people to question how much of this comes down to an abuse of power from those in charge.
Jane Fonda has spoken about her experience of erotic scenes throughout the years, with some instances leaving her feeling deeply uncomfortable or unhappy with the finished result. For example, she was not pleased to discover that Roger Vadim (her then-husband) had kept images of Fonda’s naked body in the opening of Barbarella when he promised that her nude breasts would be covered by the credits.
The actor hasn’t shied away from sex and nude scenes, but she admits that she is a little shy, and in the case of Coming Home, directed by Hal Ashby, she required a body double for some of the most explicit moments of the shoot. The movie features a sex scene between Fonda and Jon Voight’s character, a paraplegic, with Fonda telling The Guardian, “We knew it had to be a really sexy and groundbreaking kind of scene.”
Yet, Fonda soon had to stand her ground and assert her boundaries when Ashby demanded that the actor do her best to make the scene even steamier. “I didn’t want to have to do it myself so we got a body double to shoot the long shots. And I didn’t want to make Jon Voight self conscious, so I wasn’t there when they shot with the body double. I came to the rushes the next day, and there was definitely penetration – she was moving on top of him, it was pretty clear what was going on. I said, ‘Hal, you can’t use that! I thought we agreed.’”
To get around the idea of people thinking these hardcore shots were actually Fonda, she decided, “when it comes to shooting my close-ups, I won’t move, so he won’t be able to cut it in.” Fonda continued to explain the scene, adding, “We spent the day rolling around in bed, and trying to say, ‘It’s OK, it’s only acting’, right?”
“And so towards the end of the day, I’m on top of Jon, and I hear Jon saying to me, ‘Jane, Hal’s yelling at you.’ And I was so into the scene that I hadn’t heard. But suddenly, I listened and from the distance, I hear Hal Ashby saying, ‘Ride him, goddammit!’”
Fonda didn’t want to acquiesce to Ashby’s demands, stating, “I refused, I wouldn’t do it, and he stormed off the set. Right now, you can’t really tell – some people think it’s penetration, some people don’t – but for the day, it was really a hot scene, wasn’t it?”
