Movies
Mia Goth and Jenna Ortega explain how they handled ‘shocking’ sex scenes in Ti West slasher ‘X’
The stars of the hit porn-themed slasher have opened up about their behind-the-scenes experiences.
The slasher genre has seen its fair share of comings and goings over the past few decades, with some outstanding filmmakers adding their grain of sand through their vision of such an eye-catching approach to cinematic horror. And in recent years, we have witnessed the phenomenon of cinematographer Ti West, who has broken several moulds with his trilogy of ‘X’, ‘Pearl’ and, more recently, ‘MaXXXine’. And it is precisely ‘X’, the first in the series, which established Maxine Minx in the eye of the hurricane, as this film was the great opportunity for the actress Mia Goth to become a benchmark of contemporary horror. A film that caused some controversy for some very explicit sex scenes -not for nothing, the plot revolves around pornography in the 70s- for which its protagonists had to prepare themselves thoroughly, not without the help of the production team at all times.
The terror of shooting porn
The cast of ‘X’, led by Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega and Britanny Snow, explained to IndieWire how they dealt with shooting explicit sex scenes in the middle of a bloody slasher movie with guts and broken bones everywhere - “outrageous” scenes that were truly terrifying. However, the production team took it upon themselves to make the experience as fun, easy and safe as possible.
“Probably filming the porn film was the scariest moment for me, but more than anything, I think it was just the anticipation of it all,” says Mia Goth. “I knew that everyone that was in the kitchen making this happen, they were going to execute this film to a really high level. And then I read the script and that confirmed what I already thought,” adding that director Ti West assured her that everything would always be done as elegantly as possible.
For Jenna Ortega, a former Disney kid stepping into a fully grown-up genre, it was intriguing: “I had never read anything like it before, and that was super-enticing to me,” Ortega said. “I love that my character comes off one way initially, and then flips the script mid-film. … I just had a lot of faith in everybody who was behind the project and faith in the script itself. I was really eager to do something that I had never done before and put myself in an environment that was so different from anything I’ve ever filmed..”
“Ti made us feel very, very comfortable,” added Brittany Snow. “We also had a lot of control and agency over how it was done, which I think was crucial in doing this.,” to which Goth commented, “The intention behind it all was really important to me. This group of people, it’s sort of a means to an end. They’re not just making a porno for the sake of making a porno. They’re all very ambitious and they’re all very driven and they have their own ideas of what success means and what they want. It’s them wanting to make something more of themselves, and wanting to really just create a better life for themselves. That, I could understand, and I related to that.”
About the scene in which Jenna Ortega’s character breaks free and joins the shooting of the porn film, the actress explains that “That wasn’t a conscious decision. The scene actually wasn’t initially in the script,” Ortega said. “When I signed on, that wasn’t a part [of the film]. It was something that came later on. … [It was] flipping the stereotype over and just taking somebody who you wouldn’t really see in that position suddenly in that position. I think it adds to the spontaneity of the decision and also just the spontaneity of the film.”
“Just thinking about it and going over the scene and getting ready for it all [was scary], but by the time you do the first take and you’ve established what it is and what needs to get done, that goes away,” says Goth. “Then you can start having fun with it and just try to make the scene as good as possible,” concludes Goth, not without thanking the production’s intimacy coordinators for their fantastic work.
‘X’ can be watched in the United States on MAX.
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