I’m fanning myself today not because of the heat wave, but because I listened to Bound stars Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon talk at length about filming their lesbian love scene in the Wachowski’s beloved 1996 film noir.
If you weren’t alive in 1996 — and honestly, how dare you be that young — your first homework assignment is to go watch Bound, which just got added to the Criterion Collection. Not only does it mark the directorial debut for Lilly and Lana Wachowski, but it’s also a fantastic crime thriller in its own right, following two women, the unfortunately named Corky (Gershon) and her neighbor Violet (Tilly), as they conspire to steal money from the mob.
I won’t spoil any more details except to say that the first shot of Corky and Violet kissing is breathtakingly beautiful, and that there’s an iconic love scene that is as tender as it is deeply sexy — one of the high points for ’90s indie dyke cinema.
“We didn’t want it to be salacious because it was an expression of the love and trust these two women had for each other,” Tilly recalled in a recent retrospective for The Hollywood Reporter’s It Happened in Hollywood podcast.
The Chucky star recalled that she felt assured by the fact that the Wachowskis wanted to film the scene with a crane “in one long continuous shot,” as opposed to other, more titillating films of the era that would cut extra nudity into such scenes.
“The shot was very lyrical, very balletic, they had [cinematographer] Bill Pope on a crane, and the Wachowskis would yell what body part of ours was on screen,” Tilly said, with Gershon adding that the scene, “was really a dance between the five of us.”
But the part of Tilly and Gershon’s discussion that really tempted me to go write some Wattpad fiction was when the co-stars talked about how they got ready to film their first on-screen kiss.
“Gina showed up in my trailer and she’s like, ‘I have tequila,’ and I was like, ‘Tequila, what a good idea!’” Tilly remembered.
“And chocolates,” Gershon chimed in. “You always forget that I brought you chocolates, too. I was the perfect date.”
“Gina’s the best person in the world to have a sex scene because we had so much trust, and I could say to Gina, ‘Could you hold up my breast so it looks a little more juicy and perky?’” Tilly said with a laugh.
But of course, under the MPAA of the 1990s, putting authentic queer sex on screen was a challenge. Although the co-stars have slightly different memories of the struggle to secure an R rating for the film after it originally received a more restrictive NC-17 designation, they both believe the core issue for the ratings board was the undeniable intimacy between the two female characters.
In Tilly’s memory, the chemistry between her and Gershon gave the MPAA pause because it made it seem almost like the sex was unsimulated. “Let me get this straight, if we hired two actors that weren’t as good as Gina and Jennifer, you would not give an NC-17?” Tilly told THR, paraphrasing the Wachowski’s response to the MPAA.
And in Gershon’s version of events, the MPAA was leery of a take that had slightly more emotional heft, but was fine with a take that showed some skin. “For some reason, that was OK to be an R but the other, God forbid two women were actually in love — and I thought that was so hypocritical,” Gershon said.
Gershon in particular said she faced pressure from her management not to do the film, because playing a lesbian role could be potentially disastrous for her career. But, in a gift to lesbians everywhere, she completely ignored their advice: “I was into making a point because I thought it was absolutely ridiculous.”
What’s also ridiculous is you if you haven’t seen Bound yet. Go watch it and join me in being kind of overwhelmed by these two screen legends giving a play-by-play of lesbian liplocking.
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