Michael Douglas wasn’t wearing anything under his pants during the famous kitchen scene in “Fatal Attraction,” and the fumbling that followed left “one frame, one frame only, of his balls” in the finished movie.
Director Adrian Lyne told the story at an Aug. 13 screening, explaining he shot the scene over a sink instead of a bed because “I try and avoid the bed because it’s a little bit boring.” He wanted the crockery clanking and water sloshing to bring some comedy to a moment audiences can find awkward to watch.
He credited Douglas, now 81, for leaning into it. “He’s got a lovely sense of humor, Michael,” Lyne said. “He’s very good with comedy, and when he was trying to get out of his pants at the end, and he couldn’t, and she was sort of laughing.”
Douglas even asked before rolling, “Are you sure you want to shoot it this way?”
They kept the frame in. As Lyne put it, “It’s so quick you didn’t see it.”
