Rob Lowe didn’t bite his tongue this week while seemingly bashing actors who are praised for their modern-day Hollywood sex scenes.
Speaking candidly on his Literally! podcast, where he was joined by Kristin Davis, the longtime actor specifically called out Nicole Kidman and her intimate May-December scenes in 2024’s Babygirl.
When Davis brought up the film, the 60-year-old former child star agreed it was a ‘great’ movie, but mocked critics who called the racy project ‘brave.’
‘It’s pretty great. It’s pretty hot,’ he admitted before adding about the starring actress, ‘She’s brave because she has a sex scene? That’s brave now.’
Lowe then referenced an old, industry rule of thumb: ‘In our day, [the sex scene] was required. There was the “Page 73 Rule.”‘
Rob Lowe didn’t bite his tongue while bashing actors who are praised for their modern-day Hollywood sex scenes
Speaking candidly on his Literally! podcast, the longtime actor specifically called out Nicole Kidman and her intimate May-December scenes in 2024’s Babygirl
He explained that actors could always find the romantic scenes written on page 73 of the script.
‘Like, you get a script and are like, “How gratuitous. Am I going to have to be naked in this? Let me check,”‘ he recalled.
Read More
Nicole Kidman reveals the one compliment she 'hates' hearing – after 'terrifying' medical news
The star continued, ‘You didn’t have to read the whole script. You just went to page 73 because of that mid-second act.’
He asked rhetorically, ‘What do you do in that mid-second act, which is notoriously the toughest sledding in storytelling?
‘I know, they Blue Lagoon it [and] be with each other on a moonlit night. But, now it’s “so brave.”‘
The former West Wing sensation noted, ‘I always feel, like, out of chaos comes opportunity.
‘My attitude is always: you make the most of it [and] disruption is actually a great place to build new things. If you can be one of the nimble ones and one of the forward-thinking ones, not entrenched and not trying to recreate yesterday, but try to understand tomorrow, it’s your time.’
Babygirl, directed by Halina Reijn, was first unveiled at the 81st Venice Film Festival in August, where it received a six-and-a-half minute standing ovation.
Rob said Babygirl was a ‘great’ movie, but mocked critics who called the racy project ‘brave’
Babygirl, directed by Halina Reijn, was first unveiled at the 81st Venice Film Festival in August, where it received a six-and-a-half minute standing ovation
Kidman starred alongside 28-year-old British actor Harris Dickinson in the movie
The n actress said she appreciates being seen as sexual person at her age.
‘A lot of times women are discarded at a certain period of their career as a sexual being.
‘So it was really beautiful to be seen in this way. From the minute I read it, I was like, “Yeah, this is a voice I haven’t seen, this is a place that I haven’t been, I don’t think audiences have been,”‘ she told the Hollywood Reporter in December.
And per Woman’s Day, Reijn said about the project at the Venice Film Festival: ‘All of us carry a little black box filled with taboo fantasies that we might never share with anyone.
‘I am fascinated by the duality of human nature, and this film is an attempt to shine a light, without judgement, on the opposing forces that make up our personalities.’
The A24 erotic thriller also stars Antonio Banderas, Esther Rose McGregor, Sophie Wilde and Izabel Mar.