The 1996 film Fear was an uncomfortable but “formative” part of Reese Witherspoon‘s acting career.
Witherspoon, then age 19, recalled in a recent Harper’s Bazaar interview that she felt like she “didn’t have control” over a scene which saw Mark Wahlberg character David giving Witherspoon’s Nicole an orgasm while they’re riding on a roller coaster.
“It wasn’t explicit in the script that that’s what was going to happen, so that was something that I think the director (James Foley) thought of on his own and then asked me on set if I would do it, and I said no,” she told the outlet. “It wasn’t a particularly great experience.”
Witherspoon requested a body double for some of the more explicit scenes.
The “Morning Show” star claimed she was “certainly not traumatized or anything by it.”
However, she notes, “It made me understand where my place was in the pecking order of filmmaking. I think it’s another one of those stories that made me want to be an agent for change and someone who maybe can be in a better leadership position to tell stories from a female perspective instead of from the male gaze.”
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