The importance of Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan’s sex scenes in the new film

Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan’s new film hits theaters this week.

An Irish star landing the lead role in a big Hollywood film is always cause for celebration, but as far as we know… Enemy This may be the first time that both lead roles in a non-Irish film have been played by Irish performers.

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The story revolves around Hen (Saoirse Ronan) and her husband Junior (Paul Mescal), who live an isolated life on a farm in the southern states of America at a time in the future when our planet has effectively become inhospitable. One night, Terrence (Aaron Pierre) comes to their house and reveals that Junior has been chosen to be sent into space for several years in an attempt to find a viable future for humanity.

The looming deadline for their future together throws the couple into turmoil, and another wrench is thrown into the mix when Terrence tells the couple that Hen will still have company… thanks to the robotic replica of Junior left in his place.

Ahead of the film’s release, we sat down with the film’s director Garth Davis and screenwriter Ian Reid, and you can read the entire interview right here:

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Enemy had a lot more sex scenes than we expected.

During our conversation with Davis and Reed, which also talks about the original casting of Mescal and Ronan and what the title “Enemy” actually means, we noted the fact that the film has more sex scenes than we expected.

We asked the creative pair about the importance of these scenes, and Davis told us the following:

“If you’ve ever had a sex scene, it has to be there for a reason, for the character… unless you’re a different type of director! In fact, the sex scenes are almost the gateway for these big moves. which are accepted in relationships. This kind of reunion for this couple. So in a way it was very rewarding, almost everything that happened between them was a journey into that intimate moment, and that intimate moment was very symbolic of where they went into that section.

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“So it was very helpful for the actors. In fact, in rehearsals, we rehearsed the intimate scenes first, and in a strange way, as we did that, we sort of found the symbolology of the character arcs. it really helped the actors because they knew what each of those bits meant.

“It was very powerful and I was also very moved by it. Because it was about Hen reconnecting with what she had lost inside herself and having the courage to open up old feelings and accept them again. You really feel the film move away from that feeling of awkwardness and into complete freedom, spontaneity and curiosity. What I really enjoyed was experiencing it through the lovemaking and personal interaction of the characters.”

Enemy hits cinemas in Ireland and the UK on Friday 20 October.

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