A version of this story appears in the new issue ofEntertainment Weeklyon stands now and available to buy here.
Read on for the full interview.
RACHEL WEISZ:I wanted to tell a story that had two great female roles.
Bleecker Street
It’d be fromtheirpoint of view.
I read a lot of lesbian literature [to prepare].
How do you make amends with what you’ve grown up in?
Bleecker Street
How do you maintain a connection to what you come from or what you want to be?
That’s a universal theme.
Do you view the film as a critique of religion?
I, personally, have a problem with that, but I have empathy for people who are religious.
MCADAMS:Sebastianwas interested in not having any villains or vilifying anyone in the film.
WEISZ:Naomi Alderman, who wrote the novel, she grew up in this community.
So it’s not something she had to anthropologically explore, it washerstory.
It doesn’t feel like any other sex scene I’ve seen before.
Was there a significance and sensitivity to how it was plotted and shot?
WEISZ:The sex scene is a massively important and beautiful scene.
Sebastian storyboarded it precisely a couple weeks before we shot it.
So it was carefully constructed from the beginning?
WEISZ:This is the only approach that [Sebastian] suggested.
You get in the bed and in my case it’s always with men and you see what happens.
It can come out a bit meaningless and generalized.
It was important to him.
We had a whole day to shoot it.
It was full of meaning, it wasn’t just random.
MCADAMS:Often, you’re trying to decide if it’s gratuitous or not.
But this scene felt so integral to the plot and moving the story forward.
The characters need this release to open up…
There was camaraderie to it.
I certainly hope so!
What was your reaction to that?
MCADAMS:[Laughs] I was excited that Sebastian was doing something new.
It’s provocative and brings the audience into something intimate….
The makeup department tested out different flavors of lube the night before to use as the spit.
We settled on lychee-flavored!
Was it hard to get into the groove of the scene at first?
How did you foster comfort?
Everyone was very quiet and there was such warmth in the room.
It was a wonderful day.
[I] realized that I was doing a scene like any other scene.
They shouldallmake you feel vulnerable, some more than others, but they should all be risky.
In became another day at work, in that way.
What was it like performing a sexuality you don’t identify as?
I didn’t have to rearrange my DNA or anything.
Esti was the woman that I loved.
Like Sebastian had plotted it out so there were coordinates and pieces of music we had to play.
As actresses we had to fill it with emotion like a musician would fill a note.
It wasn’t freestyle and we weren’t improvising.
Film’s a really good place to show desire in close-up.
You couldn’t see where the other woman was.
It wasn’t just on one woman’s face.
I think it’s an emotional, passionate, almost spiritual love scene.
MCADAMS:I don’t think I thought about it being different.
I knew we were telling a lesbian story and that was necessary to concentrate on.
It’s just humans being with humans.
That’s not a lesbian thing!"
That’s not a “lesbian move.”
I don’t think I concentrated on that so much.
Are people stillthatuncomfortable watching gay sex in movies?
That’s pretty normal…..
They’re just not used to it.
It’s very new.
Straight men are used to seeing it in pornography, but this isn’t that.
It has love, sadness, pain, and power; it’s full of emotion.
It’s not at all for the titillation of a man.
And that’s so underrepresented.
MCADAMS:It comes down to a lack of exposure or understanding.
We haven’t told enough of these stories.
Or they’ve been categorized or put in a certain box.
It’s hardwiring, and we’re loosening it up!
MCADAMS:Humanity goes in weird phases.
There are miles to go, but I think we’re on the right path in cinema, anyway.
There are steps backward as with any revolution, but I think it’s charging forward.
