Rob Lowe: “Nobody has sex in movies anymore”
Hollywood actor Rob Lowe has discussed the changing landscape of cinema and claimed that sex scenes no longer exist in movies.
Lowe made the assertion on a recent episode of his podcast, Literally! With Rob Lowe, where he was joined by guest Kristin Davis. During the conversation, the actor reflected upon his 1988 movie, Masquerade, which he believed was too raunchy to be a success at the box office.
“Kim Cattrall and I did a movie called Masquerade together, which, I love that movie,” he told Davis. “It got good reviews, but the studio kind of dumped it because they thought it was too sexy. It was pretty gratuitous, but it was great.”
Davis agreed with his view on the film, which she said was “sexy”, before adding, “I wish we had sexy movies now.”
In the week that Anora won ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards, which tells the tale of a sex worker and her relationship with the son of a Russian oligarch who begins as her client, Lowe said to Davis: “Nobody has sex scenes in movies anymore”.
Davis then rightly pointed out that sex scenes are still an active part of contemporary film, highlighting Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, as an example. However, she also said that sex scenes are “an unusual thing now” in modern movies.
Lowe then said Babygirl is “great” but said that he doesn’t understand why Kidman is getting commended as “brave” for involving herself in sex scenes as it was commonplace during his heyday. He added: “She’s brave because she has a sex scene. That’s brave now. And, in our day, it was required. There’s the page 73 rule… In the day, the sex scene was always on page 73.”
The actor continued: “You get a script and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, how gratuitous. Do I have to be naked in this? Let me check.’ And you didn’t have to read the whole script. You just went to page 73 because that mid–second act, what do you do in the second act, which is notoriously the toughest sledding in storytelling? I know. They Blue Lagoon it. Beach under a moonlit night. But now it’s brave.”
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