Warning: This post contains spoilers for the 1998 film Wild Things, which is famous for its hairpin plot turns.
Wild Things, the twisty-turny erotic thriller from the late ‘90s, turns 25 this year. In many ways it’s a product of a different time. For one thing, erotic thrillers are thin on the ground these days. (Even Deep Water was skimpy on the sex.) But in some ways it was ahead of its time. The sexually fluid characters played by Neve Campbell and Denise Richards were rarities during the Clinton era. But in the original script, they weren’t the only ones who swung both ways.
In a retrospective interview about the film by Yahoo! Entertainment, director John McNaughton confirmed something that’s been discussed before: That Dillon’s high school teacher and Kevin Bacon’s crooked detective were supposed to get it on, too, in the scene where it’s revealed the two had been in cahoots.
“In the original version of the scene, Matt walks into his bathroom to take a shower and there’s Kevin,” McNaughton said. “They were supposed to look each other up and down and then wham — go at it.”
Alas, soon before they were supposed to film it, one of the actors opposed it. McNaughton wouldn’t say which one, but it’s not hard to figure out who it was. Both actors spoke to Total Film about the cut moment of intimacy in 2005. Bacon said the reveal was “great,” though he put the blame on the financiers, who he said “didn’t like the idea of men making out.”
Dillon, meanwhile, said, “Man, I was relieved when they got rid of that scene” He added, “Kevin seemed pretty attached to it, though!” He also described the duo’s relationship as “one twist too many, man, one twist too many.”
One can still sense some homoeroticism between the two. After all, when it’s revealed that Dillon and Bacon are working together, Bacon can be seen taking a shower, showing off full frontal nudity. During the end credit bumpers, which fill in some more of the twists, there’s some sparks, too.
“Neve preps him, and then Matt goes inside and sits next to Kevin and says, ‘Hey, could I buy you a drink?’ The next time you watch that scene, watch it closely, because [their relationship] is there,” McNaughton explained. “I always called it ‘acting twice’ with the cast, because what their characters were saying was never really what they were doing.”
McNaughton also spoke about that famous threesome between Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, and Denise Richards, which he said probably couldn’t fly today. That’s not because it’s too racy but because it’s a high school teacher getting it on with two students. McNaughton said that scene could “probably not” be filmed, adding, “Maybe in 20 years, the pendulum will swing back again, but now it’s swung pretty far in the other direction.”
Wild Things currently streams on Showtime as well as for rental.
(Via Yahoo! Entertainment)
