Rob Lowe reflected on the difference between having romantic scenes in the movies now versus the movies made in his time.
The Hollywood star and Sex and the City alum Kristin Davis recently took a trip down memory lane on Lowe’s Literally! podcast, reminiscing about the hardcore intimate scenes that once defined Hollywood films.
But according to Lowe, those sultry cinematic moments are becoming a rarity.
“Nobody has s*x scenes in movies anymore,” Lowe declared—before immediately correcting himself. “Well, A24’s Babygirl just opened, and it was great.”
The Halina Reijn-directed film, starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, has been making waves for its unapologetically steamy romance.
Kidman plays a high-powered CEO whose life is thrown into turmoil after an affair with her young intern. Her performance even earned her the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival.
But Lowe found the audience’s reaction to the film fascinating.
“They’re like, ‘It’s so brave. She’s so brave,’” he noted. “She’s brave because she has a s*x scene? Like, that’s brave now. In our day, it was required.”
Lowe then spilled some old Hollywood secrets, revealing what he called the “Page 73 rule.”
“Back in the day, the s*x scene was always on page 73,” he recalled.
“You got a script and were like, ‘Am I going to be naked in this?’ And you didn’t have to read the whole script. You just went to page 73 because that middle second act… what do you do? It’s the toughest sledding in storytelling, so they Blue Lagoon it. But now it’s so brave.”
Looking at the broader shift in Hollywood’s norms, Lowe sees opportunity in the industry’s evolution.
“I always feel, like, out of chaos comes opportunity,” he explained.
“My attitude is always you make the most of it [and] disruption is actually a great time to build new things. If you can be one of the nimble ones and you could be one of the forward-thinking ones … not entrenched and not trying to recreate yesterday but try to imagine tomorrow, it’s your time.”
With s*x scenes now a rarity and “bravery” being redefined, it seems Hollywood is in a whole new era—one where the real plot twist might just be the absence of steam.