The true story of s*x and perversion during the filming of "Nine and a half weeks", the success that forever disturbed Kim Basinger
In complicity with Mickey Rourke, director Adrian Lyne pushed his idea of the actress's character to the limit. When the line between reality and fiction was crossed
At the time of filming Nine and a half weeks, each of the protagonists had traveled their path to stardom in a different way. Mickey Rourke had grown up in the Miami underworld, in a dysfunctional home, in which his stepfather abused him and his mother. He wanted to be a boxer, but he left everything behind to pursue acting, having already worked under Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. He was beginning to make a face, and, above all, a style. Casual clothes, greasy hair, three days' growth of stubble, made him the natural contender for the ever-hot spot as James Dean's successor.
For her part, Kim Basinger had already been a Bond Girl and a Playboy cover. Born in Athens, Georgia and raised in a family of artists, she had overcome typical adolescent traumas and was ready to exploit her image, despite her shyness. After winning a beauty contest she traveled to New York to work as a model and from there she jumped to the Mecca of non-stop cinema. Her role in Never Say Never captivated the audience. The race to be "the new Marilyn Monroe" had a candidate willing to fight. She had also been married for six years to makeup artist Ron Snyder-Britton, fifteen years her senior.
Meanwhile, Adrian Lyne came from another world... literally. Born in England he forged his career in London in the field of advertising. He had two feature films behind him: Foxes, with the leading role of Jodie Foster, and the famous Flashdance, winner of two Oscars and one of the highest grossing films of the decade. For his new project, what came into his hands was more than interesting. A true story, based on the autobiographical novel by Elizabeth McNeil -pseudonym of Ingerborg Day- with passages of perversion and sadomasochism, ideal for playing to the limit. You just had to choose the right performers and set your own rules.
When Kim Basinger showed up for her casting, something in her told her that she shouldn't accept that role, that it wasn't meant for her. The production wanted actresses with more experience on the screen, and so heavy names like Kathleen Turner, Jacqueline Bisset and Isabella Rosselini paraded.
During the casting, Kim got a taste of what her hand would look like. The director only gave Mickey Rourke orders while ignoring her. Her character, Elizabeth, played a prostitute who crawled after bills thrown at her by her partner, until he said enough.
When he finished the test, the director was rubbing his hands: he had finally found the leading lady. Basinger, on the other hand, swore not to participate in that project.
Upon arriving at her house, she found 24 red roses and a letter signed by Lyne and Rourke and changed her mind. She had not yet started filming and the perversion was beginning to cross the screen.
The director was delighted with Kim. The mix of naivete and se*y bombshell of hers was exactly what she had interpreted from the novel and that was what she wanted to translate to the screen. “It couldn't have been done by just any actress. She is like a girl. She is innocent, therein lies the charm of her. She is a very instinctive actress,” Lyne recounted.
But to make the relationship more credible, the director had designed a strategy of non-communication between the protagonists. No photos, no eating out, no making friends. "She must have been afraid of him," Lyne justified. It was also planned to film the scenes in chronological order, so that Kim's physical and, above all, psychological deterioration would be simultaneous with Elizabeth's.
"Adrian wanted me to react exactly how I reacted, because Elizabeth's character was like that, naive and later transformed by a man into what he wanted from her," the actress then told the New York Times.
The director saw in the casting the key to the success of the filming. “There was such hostility and se*ual energy between them that I didn't want them to develop a relationship without me there. She must live on the edge of terror. I wanted those ten weeks of shooting to be like nine and a half weeks of the relationship," Lyne said.
To improve his plan, he decided to ignore the actress, and let her notice: only Rourke was going to receive the directions for the shoot. She also used to yell “cut” leaving Basinger nearly naked in awkward or vulnerable positions or replaying her scenes dozens of times. Actor and director used to “none” her. Rourke was absent in the scenes where he had to give rise to a phrase and the one who said it to Kim was a camera assistant. He also appeared dirty and smelling of sweat, which provoked her complaints and his justifications that he claimed that he did it to escape from her se*y image of her.
The strategy went out of line in one of the final scenes, in which the protagonists agree on a suicide. She was supposed to appear destroyed on camera, but instead she looked calm and healthy. It was not what the director was up to. Her plan was about to fail. She called out to Rourke and asked him to be more forceful. Back on set, the actor grabbed her arm tightly. She started to scream, but he wouldn't let her go. She tried to defend herself against her and hit him, and he slapped her back. It was only when tears streamed down Basinger's face that the director yelled "Action." He had gotten what he wanted.
The actress reluctantly understood the game: “I knew that if I did this it would make me stronger and wiser. I felt humiliated and disgusted. All of this went against my principles. But when you go against your principles, emotions arise that you did not know you had, ”she confessed in the promotion interview.
The route of the film is known. It went unnoticed in the United States, where censorship was responsible for cutting some scenes, such as the aforementioned casting. “The American audience was slow to appreciate what we did. Here people are afraid of certain types of romances, ”said Zalman King, one of the screenwriters. The critics were relentless and Basinger was nominated for a razzie award for worst actress. He had better luck in Europe, and also in Argentina where the public crowded into theaters. She then got into the video store circuit and today she is considered a cult.
The filming took a physical and emotional toll on Basinger, who had suddenly become a celebrity.
Two years later she separated from her husband, who in a biography of her aired a touch and go of the blonde with Richard Gere, her partner in No mercy. In 1989, she was cast in the role of Vicky Vale in Tim Burton's Batman. In charge of the soundtrack was the artist then still known as Prince. They lived an intense romance, she settled in Minneapolis and her family was so surprised that she claimed that the musician had bewitched her. He fulfilled one of her dreams and produced her album, Hollywood affair, where a myth ensures that the couple's gasps can be heard.
"At that time I did not deprive myself of anything," confessed the blonde, without remorse or false modesty. She yes she even bought an entire town, with which she dreamed of making a miniature Hollywood. What she would regret, was accepting the next movie.
At the threshold of the '90s, Basinger was flooded with offers. She agreed to participate in That Blonde Weakness, where she met Alec Baldwin. The couple's fatal attraction lasted much longer than nine and a half weeks. Kim and Alec confused the limits of the script and ignored the court order. They repeated the formula in La huida, the other film in which they shared the poster, and where they assure that the i-n-t-i-m-a-t-e scenes have an excess of literalness.
They got married in 1993, in 1995 they had their only daughter, Ireland, they separated in 1998 and in 2002 they started a scandalous divorce before the eyes of the world. They made their differences public and in the middle, suffering blows from one side and the other, little Ireland. “A divorce is difficult for a child no matter how it occurs. But ours was very public and dirty, "acknowledged the actress, who allowed herself to joke with that choice at the beginning of the decade:" They should shoot me for having made that choice. I turned down Sleeping with the Enemy to shoot That Blonde Weakness and ended up being the one sleeping with her enemy."
Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger took 23 years to show themselves publicly again after all that Nine and a Half Weeks meant. In that time, they knew of falls and resurrections, successes and failures; love and betrayal There was even a remake of the famous film, to which he said yes, and she said no. Each one received professional recognition. She won an Oscar for her prostitute role in Los Angeles Naked and he cherished it—and according to everyone but the Academy, she deserved it—for The Wrestler. They say that among the thousands of congratulations Rourke received, there was a sender in the name of Basinger.
To improve his plan, he decided to ignore the actress, and let her notice: only Rourke was going to receive the directions for the shoot. She also used to yell “cut” leaving Basinger nearly naked in awkward or vulnerable positions or replaying her scenes dozens of times. Actor and director used to “none” her. Rourke was absent in the scenes where he had to give rise to a phrase and the one who said it to Kim was a camera assistant. He also appeared dirty and smelling of sweat, which provoked her complaints and his justifications that he claimed that he did it to escape from her se*y image of her.
The strategy went out of line in one of the final scenes, in which the protagonists agree on a suicide. She was supposed to appear destroyed on camera, but instead she looked calm and healthy. It was not what the director was up to. Her plan was about to fail. She called out to Rourke and asked him to be more forceful. Back on set, the actor grabbed her arm tightly. She started to scream, but he wouldn't let her go. She tried to defend herself against her and hit him, and he slapped her back. It was only when tears streamed down Basinger's face that the director yelled "Action." He had gotten what he wanted.
The actress reluctantly understood the game: “I knew that if I did this it would make me stronger and wiser. I felt humiliated and disgusted. All of this went against my principles. But when you go against your principles, emotions arise that you did not know you had, ”she confessed in the promotion interview.
The route of the film is known. It went unnoticed in the United States, where censorship was responsible for cutting some scenes, such as the aforementioned casting. “The American audience was slow to appreciate what we did. Here people are afraid of certain types of romances, ”said Zalman King, one of the screenwriters. The critics were relentless and Basinger was nominated for a razzie award for worst actress. He had better luck in Europe, and also in Argentina where the public crowded into theaters. She then got into the video store circuit and today she is considered a cult.
The filming took a physical and emotional toll on Basinger, who had suddenly become a celebrity.
Two years later she separated from her husband, who in a biography of her aired a touch and go of the blonde with Richard Gere, her partner in No mercy. In 1989, she was cast in the role of Vicky Vale in Tim Burton's Batman. In charge of the soundtrack was the artist then still known as Prince. They lived an intense romance, she settled in Minneapolis and her family was so surprised that she claimed that the musician had bewitched her. He fulfilled one of her dreams and produced her album, Hollywood affair, where a myth ensures that the couple's gasps can be heard.
"At that time I did not deprive myself of anything," confessed the blonde, without remorse or false modesty. She yes she even bought an entire town, with which she dreamed of making a miniature Hollywood. What she would regret, was accepting the next movie.
At the threshold of the '90s, Basinger was flooded with offers. She agreed to participate in That Blonde Weakness, where she met Alec Baldwin. The couple's fatal attraction lasted much longer than nine and a half weeks. Kim and Alec confused the limits of the script and ignored the court order. They repeated the formula in La huida, the other film in which they shared the poster, and where they assure that the i-n-t-i-m-a-t-e scenes have an excess of literalness.
They got married in 1993, in 1995 they had their only daughter, Ireland, they separated in 1998 and in 2002 they started a scandalous divorce before the eyes of the world. They made their differences public and in the middle, suffering blows from one side and the other, little Ireland. “A divorce is difficult for a child no matter how it occurs. But ours was very public and dirty, "acknowledged the actress, who allowed herself to joke with that choice at the beginning of the decade:" They should shoot me for having made that choice. I turned down Sleeping with the Enemy to shoot That Blonde Weakness and ended up being the one sleeping with her enemy."
Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger took 23 years to show themselves publicly again after all that Nine and a Half Weeks meant. In that time, they knew of falls and resurrections, successes and failures; love and betrayal There was even a remake of the famous film, to which he said yes, and she said no. Each one received professional recognition. She won an Oscar for her prostitute role in Los Angeles Naked and he cherished it—and according to everyone but the Academy, she deserved it—for The Wrestler. They say that among the thousands of congratulations Rourke received, there was a sender in the name of Basinger.
In 2009 they coincided in the cast of Los informants although they did not share scenes. When the day of the premiere arrived in Los Angeles, all the flashes were ready waiting for the moment. She arrived radiant, in a black suit. He was wearing a yellow jacket and his face had changed too much. They exchanged a few words in their ears, a minute that seemed eternal. The photographers demanded a look and they gave them the pleasure.
What Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke talked about one thousand two hundred weeks after the movie that established them, only they know. The truth is that the filming went down in history for allowing physical and psychological abuse typical of a time when #MeToo was a utopia and that inevitably lead to the unanswered question. How would the 2019 Rourkes and Basingers have reacted?
