Kim Basinger forged her successful acting career back in the wild days of the 1980s and 1990s.
In an interview with Variety, the 71-year-old Academy Award winner talked about the pressure of making sexy R-rated movies.
The genre was immensely popular for the better part of 30 years, but is almost extinct today.
‘It’s a very hard thing to shoot a beautiful love scene,’ Basinger said. ‘You think it’s just lay down with a bunch of baby oil. It’s not. It can really work your nerves.
‘I can’t imagine having somebody come up to me and say, “Do you mind if they put their hand here?”‘ referring to the current popularity of using intimacy coordinators.
‘That’s just another person in the room. Either we work it out or we don’t,’ she said. ‘I don’t see all of this need for supervised visits.’
Kim Basinger forged her successful acting career back in the wild days of the 1980s and 1990s. Seen here in 9 1/2 Weeks
In 9 1/2 Weeks, Basinger played the role of Elizabeth McGraw opposite Mickey Rourke’s John Gray.
Her character embarks on a dangerous BDSM-style relationship and that thought scared her back in 1985 when the film was shot.
She wasn’t worried about the sexual content. She was worried about how hard it would be on her emotionally.
She told director Adrian Lyne that she would take the role if the film was shot chronologically.
Basinger didn’t want to meet Rourke before filming began.
In order to inhabit the role, she wanted to meet him in the first scene of the movie when the cameras began rolling.
‘I wanted to meet Mickey Rourke in that grocery store [depicted in the film],’ Basinger said.
‘I did not want to say hello to him before. I didn’t want to talk to him on the set. It had nothing to do with all the stuff you read on the internet about he and I hating each other.
In an interview with Variety , the 71-year-old Academy Award winner talked about the pressure of making sexy R-rated movies. Seen here in 9 1/2 Weeks
The genre was immensely popular for the better part of 30 years, but is all but extinct today. Seen in 9 1/2 Weeks
‘It’s a very hard thing to shoot a beautiful love scene,’ Basinger said. ‘You think it’s just lay down with a bunch of baby oil. It’s not. It can really work your nerves.’ Seen here in 9 1/2 Weeks
‘I loved him. He’s a brilliant actor too. But when I met him for the first time, it was on film. And I never saw him any other time.’
Basinger rightfully believes the 1986 film could never be made today but she doesn’t have any regrets about the sexy role.
‘I have found that I have some of the most loyal fans in the world because of ‘9½ Weeks,’ she said.
As for her most famous role, the one that won her an Oscar, Lynn Bracken in LA Confidential, she almost didn’t take that role because she didn’t want to be typecast in the femme fatale role.
When the now classic film noir was being cast, Basinger was newly married to Alec Baldwin and a new mother to her only child, Ireland Baldwin.
She met with the late director Chris Hanson – who went on to become a great friend of hers – and still wasn’t convinced.
After all, she’d played a siren three times already. She was a Bond Girl in a Never Say Never Again, a New York gallery owner in 9½ Weeks and Vicki Vale running barefoot through the streets of Gotham City in Tim Burton’s 1989 ‘Batman.’
Then she read the script and she was convinced she was born to play that role.
‘That’s just another person in the room. Either we work it out or we don’t,’ she said. Seen here in 9 1/2 Weeks
‘I don’t see all of this need for supervised visits.’ Seen here in 9 1/2 Weeks
‘I can’t imagine having somebody come up to me and say, “Do you mind if they put their hand here?”‘ referring to intimacy coordinators. Seen with Richard Gere in 1992’s Final Analysis
‘There are just those times in your life when a script will come and you’ll close the last page and go, “I want to say these words,”‘ she said.
‘So I said yes to the role, and I found myself bringing my baby to work and putting her on a picnic blanket next to Russell Crowe rolling around in the grass.’
She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in LA Confidential.
These days, she isn’t retired but she’s very very selective about what kind of roles she wants to take on.
