The satirical and entertaining thriller drama Saltburn is causing controversy on Amazon Prime. The most shocking of these was not even in the script to begin with
At the end of 2023, one of the most controversial films of the year, Saltburn, was released on Amazon Prime’s streaming subscription. Several scenes from the work of Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell sparked controversial discussions or were shared heatedly online.
Probably the most shocking Saltburn scene revolves around a grave into which pent-up emotions are discharged in an offensive manner. It is now known that the scene was not initially in the script in such an explicitly escalating manner. The director and actor Barry Keoghan improvised it during filming.
Warning, here’s a major spoiler for the Saltburn storyline:
Shocking Saltburn climax arose spontaneously on set
In Fennell’s film, Oliver (Keoghan), who comes from a humble background, falls in love with his wealthy fellow student Felix (Jacob Elordi) as a newcomer to Oxford University. After he is invited to the rich aristocrat’s estate and allowed to live there for a longer period of time, a tragic development occurs at some point in Saltburn.
After a party, Felix is found dead in the estate’s maze. Following the funeral, Oliver stands alone in front of Felix’s grave, dropping his pants and penetrating the fresh earth to the point of orgasm.
Already seen it? On Amazon: One of the best movies of the last 30 years
For many, this moment is considered the tasteless high or low point of Saltburn. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director and Keoghan spoke in more detail about the scene, which wasn’t initially planned that way:
I talked to Barry that morning and just said, ‘I don’t know, Barry. I think he would … unzip it.’ And Barry just said, ‘Yeah.’
Keoghan then asked for the set to be shielded from the environment and spontaneously played the scene as it appears in the final film.
(Jacob Elordi as Felix in Saltburn)
For the director, the appeal lies precisely in the length of the bizarre moment. The intention was not to cut away and to endure Oliver’s action with discomfort.
In the interview, Fennell also describes Keoghan’s performance in the scene as “the most extraordinary thing she’s ever seen”
