A lot of actors in the early stages of their careers have done weird and unethical things to get a breakthrough role that would be a turning point in their careers. However, not a lot of famous actors are asked to do these things. So, it definitely came as a surprise when Shia LaBeouf once revealed in an interview with Zentropa Productions back in 2014 that the actor was asked for an image of his p*nis before the start of filming of the erotic art movie, Nymphomaniac.
Shia LaBeouf revealed how the producers of Nymphomaniac asked for a picture of his p*nis
Shia LaBeouf played the role of an office worker, Jerôme Morris in the movie Nymphomaniac which followed the story of a 50-year-old nymphomaniac woman. The Transformers actor once revealed in an interview an unforgettable experience he had on the set of Nymphomaniac where the producers of the movie asked for a picture of his p*nis. He said,
“The first info we got – and I’ll never forget this because my entire team reacted with such a fear – the first request on the production end, not from Lars[Von Trier]… was pictures of my p*nis… Lars goes, ‘Alright… Send him the letter’. The letter was, ‘Are you game?’ I guess the first test was, ‘Let’s time how long it takes this motherf**ker to send his d**k over the Internet.’ It was like 20 minutes. So they were like, ‘All right, kid’s ready.”
Despite the weird request, Shia LaBeouf went on to play the role of Jerôme Morris as this was the first time he was offered this type of role in his career. He said,
“Previously in my career, I’d been every man or the normal guy stuck in this extraordinary situation. Jerome was the opportunity to play a slimy, evil, blasphemous, mini-juggernaut of a man.”
The producer of the movie, Louise Vesth talks about the filming of Nymphomaniac
Nymphomaniac had many intense and explicit scenes in the movies that would have been quite difficult and uncomfortable to shoot with even A-listers. That is why the actors’ body doubles were used for shooting intimate scenes. The producer of the movie, Louise Vesth even talked about filming such scenes in the movie and said,
“We shot the actors pretending to have s*x and then had the body doubles, who really did have s*x, and in post we will digital-impose the two,” Vesth explained. “So above the waist it will be the star and the below the waist it will be the doubles.”
Despite having such difficult post-production work, the movie starring Shia LaBeouf was not a critical or commercial success as such. Nymphomaniac received mixed reviews from fans and critics.
Nymphomaniac is currently streaming on Mubi.
Source: Zentropa Productions and The Hollywood Reporter