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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Notes on a Scandal (film) - this has shocked me

22 replies

BarbaraVineFan · 25/12/2022 22:23

Watched Notes on a Scandal this evening for the second time. Bloody good film, amazing acting but I Googled and found out that the actor who plays the 15 year old schoolboy was only 17 in 2006 when the film came out (so possibly only 16 when it was filmed) and he has some pretty full-on sex scenes with Cate Blanchett, who was 37 at the time! This seems really off to me... what are your views?

OP posts:
FoxtrotOscarFoxtrotOscar · 25/12/2022 22:26

I agree, great film.
Did the actor have a body double for the steamy stuff?

BarbaraVineFan · 25/12/2022 22:30

Nope, just found this interview with the actor which says not www.thefreelibrary.com/My+sex+scenes+with+Hollywood+Cate..%26+I+was+only+sixteen%3B+EXCLUSIVE...-a0155357954

OP posts:
jetadore · 25/12/2022 22:43

Yeh does seems pretty off but they weren’t actually having sex and even if they were it wouldn’t be illegal?

Nimbostratus100 · 25/12/2022 22:44

Film has the wrong ending - in the book she never goes back to her husband

BarbaraVineFan · 25/12/2022 22:46

I know they're not having actual sex 😂 and I know it isn't illegal, but it just seems strange to me that they couldn't have found an actor who was 18+ but looked younger to play the 15 year old..I don't know, it just seems wrong

OP posts:
BarbaraVineFan · 25/12/2022 22:48

@Nimbostratus100 I know, but i do like the film ending as well, with Barbara moving on to a new victim

OP posts:
mrsmalcolmreynolds · 25/12/2022 22:50

So you're saying 18 by a day would be ok, and that's more important than whether the production was looking after the wellbeing of all actors (male or female) in intimate scenes ?

BarbaraVineFan · 25/12/2022 22:53

@mrsmalcolmreynolds as a teacher for many years, I just think that a 16 year old lacks the maturity to do sex scenes with an actor 20 years older. There is a big change between 16 and 18, in my experience

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mrsmalcolmreynolds · 25/12/2022 22:57

Right, but you don't know that 16 yo, you don't know how sex scenes are dealt with either in general or in particular on that film?

Unless there's a lot you've not yet shared?

I'm not disagreeing with you in principle, it just seems like this it a bit generalised.

PosseGalore · 01/06/2023 14:05

BarbaraVineFan · 25/12/2022 22:23

Watched Notes on a Scandal this evening for the second time. Bloody good film, amazing acting but I Googled and found out that the actor who plays the 15 year old schoolboy was only 17 in 2006 when the film came out (so possibly only 16 when it was filmed) and he has some pretty full-on sex scenes with Cate Blanchett, who was 37 at the time! This seems really off to me... what are your views?

It's a great film, but I agree that it is a bit off. I think that there is an underlying sensationalist quality to films about adults having affairs with underage children, which makes me uncomfortable. The viewer is placed in a voyeuristic position and I wonder why such films are as popular as they are.

They now employ intimacy coaches on set to safeguard all involved, which is a good initiative.

I was watching Googlebox the other night and a woman said she was "turned on" by sex scenes in a series, which made me think she was using the series like porn. Yuck.

Increasingly, I hate seeing sex scenes on screen because I wonder what it's for. I almost think it would be better to go back to old fashioned crashing waves etc.

I think the media has a lot of soul searching to do.

PosseGalore · 01/06/2023 14:06

Sorry. Just realised that I am replying to an old thread.

Idontpostmuch · 01/06/2023 22:23

BarbaraVineFan · 25/12/2022 22:23

Watched Notes on a Scandal this evening for the second time. Bloody good film, amazing acting but I Googled and found out that the actor who plays the 15 year old schoolboy was only 17 in 2006 when the film came out (so possibly only 16 when it was filmed) and he has some pretty full-on sex scenes with Cate Blanchett, who was 37 at the time! This seems really off to me... what are your views?

I know what you mean. It seems to me that protection of children is ott these days, but then as soon as they're adult, or in this case at least over the age of consent, they're subjected to horrors, when scarcely more than children.

VestaTilley · 01/06/2023 22:31

@PosseGalore replying to the wrong thread or not, I agree with you. I hate sex on TV.

howtheway · 01/06/2023 22:35

I've not seen it but I recently watched The Breakfast Club with my teen and was really repulsed by the zoomed in shot of Molly Ringwald's knickers and inner thighs shot straight up her skirt.

I said as much to my 15 year old and asked how old MR was and she was about 17 I think at the time and it just felt really uncomfortable.

I am also in a job that involves safeguarding anyone up to 18 and so can totally relate to what you're saying.

SnugAsA · 01/06/2023 22:54

I find sex scenes embarrassing to watch, generally speaking, but I'm not shocked or troubled by the idea that some people might find them arousing. Many times that seems to be the whole point, really. It's rarely (if ever) 'necessary' to show, from a storytelling point of view.

IneedanewTV · 01/06/2023 23:02

If it was the other way round ie 17 year old girl it would be questioned more. In the past some female actors have been very young and it’s not comfortable to watch.

Abhannmor · 02/06/2023 18:22

Not seen the film but it was a brilliant novel. It was such an accurate depiction of North London school politics that I was quite shocked to discover the author is American.

Mountainpika · 02/06/2023 18:48

VestaTilley · 01/06/2023 22:31

@PosseGalore replying to the wrong thread or not, I agree with you. I hate sex on TV.

Well of course you do.
You'd keep falling off.

Simonjt · 02/06/2023 18:51

To be honest I just assumed that children weren’t allowed to partake in sex scenes, I haven’t seem the film for this but I do like the book, at least I know to give it a miss now, I’m not a fan of sex scenes anyway, but knowing it involves an actual child actor makes it even worse.

LifeIsPainHighness · 02/06/2023 18:55

I’ve seen this film and don’t remember any steamy sex scenes! Just the aftermath of them lying in bed or kissing and falling to the ground

alltoomuchrightnow · 02/06/2023 19:24

re Molly Ringwald - she was too young so they used someone else for the upskirt shot

PosseGalore · 02/06/2023 23:02

😂

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