There are some movie scenes that go down in history for some dubious reasons and if you were asked to name a modern one that made people look at their bathtub a little differently, then Saltburn will probably come to your lips. For star Jacob Elordi, who is currently starring in Guillermo del Toro’s take on Frankenstein, the outrage over the infamous bathtub scene is all the evidence he needs to be reminded of how “prudish” people can be.
Directed by Emerald Fennell, Saltburn was released in 2023, bringing to cinemas a tale of debauchery, desire, and privilege in Oxford, England. The story centers on Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), who is drawn into a world of the charming, aristocratic Felix Catton (Elordi), and the Catton family home of Saltburn, where his summer will never be forgotten.
While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Elordi was asked about the moment in the movie when Barry Keoghan’s character drinks the bathwater dregs left by Felix, who moments earlier…let’s say, enjoyed some alone time in the tub. To really get some viewers’ gorge rising, Keoghan’s Oliver also gives the bath’s drain a thorough going over with his tongue. The moment even led to the creation of a “Jacob Elordi’s Bathwater” candle. For the actor, there is too much made about sex in all its forms in entertainment when there are much worse things out there. He said:
“I actually think it shows me just how, I guess, prudish we are. When I watch that, I just think there’s far more extreme things in cinema that I’ve seen, far more graphic. There’s more alarming things in the top 10 streamed remakes of crime documentaries on every streaming platform. I think that’s much more alarming, the kind of horrible joy that we all get from watching children be mutilated. That’s what was interesting to me. I was like, here’s a piece of fiction with something just a little taboo, and that makes people’s skin crawl. It’s an interesting parallel.”
‘Saltburn’s Queasy Moment Even Caused a Reaction on Set
In the internet age, Saltburn quickly became the movie everything was talking about in 2023, and clips surfaced on social media as soon as they were available. However, filming the scene in question caused just as much fuss as viewing it. As Fennell previously explained:
“When Barry started to rim the drain, [cinematographer] Linus [Sandgren] squealed like a little girl, and we had to edit it out, and he was like, ‘F—.’ That is the thing — if in the room on the monitor you are all feeling like, ‘Whoa, holy s—,’ then it’s the most exciting thing in the world. Because it’s not just that something’s incredibly sexy, or at least I think it is; it has an involuntary physical response actually, that even when you are not physically supposed to respond vocally because you’re filming, you do that because it’s something that you can’t help but respond to. And it’s those moments where you know that you are getting to something that is incredible.”
- Release Date
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November 17, 2023
- Runtime
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131 Minutes