The final say over the nudity: Love & other drugs, Love & sex on-screen

“I thought if I am literally trying to act and worrying, thinking: ‘Oh I can’t turn this way because that’ll show a side of my breast that I haven’t negotiated’ it would just ruin the entire
experience.
“So I sat down with my co-star Jake Gyllenhaal and the director and said: ‘I trust you guys, I trust that you are both gentlemen and you are not going to exploit the situation. Go ahead and film what you want’.

“Jake and I had the final say over the nudity. As a result of all that, the sex scenes felt natural and very true to the characters.”
Did you lose weight for the role or spend a lot of time preparing physically to play the part?
“I had to figure out what Maggie’s body would look like and I did a lot of research on the effect that Parkinson’s drugs have on one’s body.

“I discovered that they end up keeping you very thin in a sinewy sort of way. So that was the body I had to create for the character and I worked very hard to get that body, it’s not my natural physique. What do you think this film says about relationships? What is the theme?

“The thing that I love is that there are two very strong threads that run throughout the film and they are connected by Jake’s character, Jamie, who is clearly going through an enormous transformation.
“I loved getting to watch Jake’s performance, the way he navigates the two worlds and what they have in common.

“I think that two threads revolve around Jamie’s choices: whether he will choose to be the better version of himself, which is the far riskier prospect, or continuing along the path he has been taking". Source: www.getsurrey.co.uk

Jake Gyllenhaal exits LAX International Airport after arriving on a flight from NYC on Friday (January 7) in Los Angeles. Source: justjared.buzznet.com

Scans of Jake Gyllenhaal in August Man (Singapore) magazine, January 2011 issue

Anne Hathaway laughs seeing Jake Gyllenhaal dancing in underwear in "Love & other drugs" (2010)

"Sex always has and always will sell movies," says assistant editor of Film Ireland, Steven Gavin.
"But looking at Hollywood 2010 you have to ask: where is the sex? We seem to be going through an impotent era in popular cinema that can't get it up on cinema screens and is afraid to present sex in any sort of adult way. Instead, we get vacuous teenager fantasies and rom-com misogynist cop-outs."
Casting an eye over the past year's cinematic offerings, even the vapid nudity of Love & Other Drugs stands out as an anomaly.
Other recent big hitters at the box office have included the thriller Inception, the excitement of Harry Potter and the vampire on-goings of the Twilight franchise -- all of which were high on production costs and low on explicit content. Studios have cottoned on to the fact that SFX is a bigger seller than sex.

Back in the day, the merest whiff of sexual friction was a guaranteed box-office winner. Cary Grant removing a spec of dust from Deborah Kerr's eye in An Affair To Remember had women swooning in 1957, while GIs whooped in 1946 when Rita Hayworth's Gilda stripped off one long, black, satin glove.But with the dawn of the internet and stiff competition from TV shows like True Blood, Californication and Boardwalk Empire (coming to Sky this spring), titillation is no longer something we have to go to the cinema for -- our cinematic (s) expectations have changed.
"I think people have become more blasé when it comes to sex, we're not so easily shocked," says Susan Picken, head of independent Belfast cinema, Queen's Film Theatre.
'But I don't think it's as simple as saying sex does or does not sell. We've all become a lot more cynical and more demanding as movie goers. Back in the 1980s and '90s there was a real vogue for erotic thrillers but people want to see something different."
Jake Gyllenhaal holds Anne Hathaway at the premiere of 'Love & Other Drugs' in Sydney, on 6th December 2010

He added: "Sex in the cinema isn't about nudity or the mechanical spectacle of simulated copulation -- it's about the illusion of fantasy, pleasure and emotional, physical and psychological desire. We'll always want this, we just want it done well." - Chrissie Russell
Source: www.independent.ie