Claire Danes Nude Sex Scene in Shopgirl

James Joyner | Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Claire Danes has apparently gotten over whatever misgivings she had about her first-ever nude movie sex scenes–with a geriatric Steve Martin, no less.

Claire Danes Gets Over Worries About Nude Sex Scene in Shopgirl (National Ledger)

Sexy actress Claire Danes gets it on with wild and crazy guy Steve Martin (sorry - couldn’t resist) in her first-ever nude scene in “Shopgirl.” She initially complained saying: “Acting is a humiliating job, from start to finish. … But they played jazz. That helped.”

Hmmm, maybe the world’s smallest violin would have been more appropriate, Lloyd Grove commented at the time.

Now it appears that Claire has it a bit more under control.

IMDb:

Claire Danes initially found it hard to disrobe and shoot a raunchy sex scene with older co-star Steve Martin in new movie Shopgirl, before realizing her awkwardness was perfect for the film. The 26-year-old admits she was nervous when faced with the prospect of romping with 60-year-old Martin. She tells the New York Daily News, “The age difference seemed a little awkward, but the movie is about that. I didn’t want to be coy about their relationship. It ultimately evolved into something more complex, but initially he wanted to have sex with her, and she wanted to have sex with him.”

Ick. I’m not sure what Hollywood’s fascination is with pairing geriatric men with young, attractive women.

Of course, Martin did write the book on which the screenplay was based, so he might as well play the starring role:

Steve Martin can do it all (MSNBC-AP, Sept. 11)

More so than at perhaps any other time in his career, Steve Martin has a film that showcases his versatility.

“Shopgirl” started with Martin’s prose, his best-selling novella about a depressive wallflower pursued by a rich older man and an awkward young slacker. It comes to the theater via Martin’s own screenplay adaptation, which turned a highly internalized tale with minimal dialogue into a camera-friendly story.

It also features one of the finer in Martin’s growing range of quiet, restrained performances as he fills the role of the lonely older man looking for love while settling for sex with a woman half his age. And as the producer, Martin helped stitch together a pitch-perfect cast that includes Claire Danes as the wallflower and Jason Schwartzman as the slacker.

Martin’s an enormous talent, without a doubt. Still, it’s unlikely a hottie like Claire Danes would go for him if they were just ordinary schmoes.

Update:

Tao of Steve (Straight.com)

teve Martin wasn’t Steve Martin’s first choice for the role he plays in Shopgirl, his screen adaptation of his best-selling and beloved novella. “I asked Tom Hanks because I thought he was really the perfect guy to play it,” Martin says. When Hanks passed on the project, Martin settled for himself in a role he always suspected he might play one day.

He says he didn’t have any doubts about casting Claire Danes as his title character, though. “As soon as we had lunch, Claire didn’t even have to speak before we knew that she was exactly right for it, because Claire is naturally beautiful as opposed to unnaturally beautiful in Hollywood.” Danes plays the title character in the bittersweet romantic comedy about Mirabelle Butterfield, a lonely young artist who sells gloves at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills and finds herself torn between two men: Ray Porter (Martin), a rich, suave older lover with commitment issues, and Jeremy, a terminally immature but well-meaning would-be beau played by Jason Schwartzman. Sitting next to Danes at a news conference for Shopgirl’s world premiere at September’s Toronto International Film Festival, Martin raves about his film’s star. “There’s something about the simplicity of Claire’s performance that’s quite stunning.”

Although Martin didn’t direct Shopgirl (which opens in Vancouver next Friday [October 28]), it’s very much a Steve Martin film, and his costars were definitely looking to him for approval. “Steve has been a hero of mine forever,” says Danes, who was a fan of the book before being approached about the film.

So, what was it like to share the screen with the screenwriter? “Steve was incredibly generous. Immediately he made it very clear that if Jason and I ever needed to rework a scene, we had licence to. He was great that way. So I never felt confined or pressured to do something that was not intuitive.”

Speaking at a separate news conference, Schwartzman echoes Danes’s sentiments. “I would ask him questions like, ‘What did you mean by that?’ or ‘Do you think it’s like this?’ And it’s so helpful to have the guy who wrote it—especially when it’s Steve Martin—be there and really talk you through what he meant. And the great thing about him, too, is he’s very open. He was suggesting things to me. He’s an investigator, and it’s a pleasure to work for an investigative writer.”

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.

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