The Fifty Shades of Grey movie doesn’t come out until next month, but we can reveal now if one of the book’s most memorable, and graphic, scenes was cut.
As is the case with Fifty Shades of Grey or any book-to-movie adaptation, some moments either can’t or won’t be reenacted on film for a variety of reasons.
E.L. James’ novel certainly presented some challenges in this regard.
The subject matter is such that director Sam Taylor-Johnson said her team never even discussed filming one of the book’s most talked-about moments.
Stop reading here if you don’t know, or want to know, what that was …
The infamous scene occurs when it’s that time of the month for Anastasia Steele, and Christian Grey wants to have sex with his new muse regardless.
Control freak that the bad boy billionaire is, he slides his hand in between her legs, pulls the tampon right out of her and proceeds to go to work.
Producer Michael De Luca explained why this scene was NOT filmed.
“The book needed to put you in Ana’s shoes to be a successful experience,” he says, and James did so, therefore, “A lot of it was very literal.”
Conversely, he says “the movie didn’t need to do that” on quite the same level to tell the story successfully. “It’s a completely different medium.”
It’s probably for the best that this scene was cut, both to make sure Fifty Shades of Grey’s R-rating was preserved and for more obvious reasons.
At first it looked like an NC-17 label was inevitable, but thanks to a rewrite of an early draft that included more racy scenes, it was dialed down to R.
That doesn’t mean that it’s a PG experience by any means, though.
Taylor-Johnson believes that even without the tampon moment or other noteworthy book sex romps, fans of the novel will be satisfied with the “action.”
De Luca said that the most intense sex scene of the entire movie comes at the end, when Ana asks Christian to “do his worst,” and well, he obliges.
Star Jamie Dornan, he says, was “a miracle” and got “carried away in the moment,” so just use your imagination and let that thought simmer, 50 Shades fans.
And if you’re looking for something even more graphic and unintentionally hilarious, then there’s always the Kim Kardashian sex tape. Just saying.