Fatal Attraction has been a benchmark for movie thrillers since the ‘80s, kicking off the “_____ from Hell” genre. Glenn Close’s Alex Forrest was the mistress from Hell when Michael Douglas‘ Dan Gallagher broke it off with her. The nanny from Hell, roommate from Hell, cop from Hell, and many more would follow.
The film was a huge hit and embraced by Motion Picture Academy voters, who rewarded it with six Oscar nods, including Best Picture, Best Director for Adrian Lyne, Best Actress for Close, Best Supporting Actress for Anne Archer, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Lyne attended a screening of Fatal Attraction Thursday night at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures as part of its “Summer of Thrills” series. Lyne shared that he left in a take where Douglas’ private parts are briefly visible as he struggles to get his pants off in his love scene with Close.
“There’s one frame with his balls in,” Lyne said. “We left it in. It’s so quick you didn’t see it.”
Lyne appreciated Douglas’ physical comedy in the heat of passion. Likewise, he set a sex scene in the kitchen to break up the monotony of bedroom sex scenes.
“You always have to give them something to laugh at, because if you don’t, they’ll laugh at you anyway in a bad way,” Lyne said. “I chose the sink because I thought it’s more interesting than a bed and it’s sort of fun, the whole thing of the crockery clanking around and she can reach under the tap and put it on her breasts.”
Close is topless in the film, but had another revealing moment the audience did not see. Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick was in the audience and revealed something about her wardrobe. When Alex stalks Dan after vandalizing his car, she is wearing a black leather jacket.
Mirojnick shouted from the audience that Close wore only that jacket “with nothing underneath it,” which was news to Lyne.
“I didn’t know,” he said sheepishly.
Alex’s threat “I’m not going to be ignored” became the oft-quoted line from Fatal Attraction. Lyne was more impressed by her delivery of another line. When Dan asks her if she’s discreet, Close came up with multiple ways to assure him, “Yes, I’m discreet.”
“She said it five totally different ways,” Lyne said. “It was just an extraordinary sort of technique with it.”
Close’s smile following a fight with a kitchen knife also led to the film’s seductive ambiguity.
“She’s smiling at him and I wanted it to look like they just might have f–ked like bandits,” Lyne said. “I remember talking to Glenn to get this sort of smile. It’s probably just as well they didn’t.”
The film was a hit, sparking such conversation that it made more in its second week than its first. Lyne was pleased to see the audience engaged, but heard one interpretation that he found way off base.
“The suggestion that it was an attack on career women was just nuts because it was a story about one woman who happens to be an editor,” Lyne said. “I sympathize with her for at least three-quarters of the movie. Then it changes a bit at the end. In no way on earth was it any sort of condemnation of career women.”
The point where Lyne felt Alex went too far was kidnapping Dan’s daughter, Ellen (Ellen Hamilton Latzen). Perhaps he could still forgive boiling Ellen’s bunny to death, but the kidnapping that followed was his point of no return. Until then, Lyne condemned Dan.
“Well, he’s weak,” Lyne said. “I really feel strongly that the character used her, not once but twice. It’s pretty disgusting really.”
The film ends with Alex vanquished and the Gallaghers physically safe. However, Lyne did not intend to suggest that they would all be okay after what Dan had put his wife, Beth (Archer), and child through. The film fades to black on a framed photo of the Gallaghers.
“People took that sort of push in on the photograph seriously,” Lyne said. “I thought that was just sort of ironic really. Not happy forever after, but people took it very seriously. ‘Oh, he’s protected the family.’”
The alternate ending frequently comes up in discussions of Fatal Attraction, and last night was no exception. In the original filmed ending, Dan gets arrested for Alex’s murder because his fingerprints were on the knife. Lyne shot a new ending where Dan’s wife shoots Alex fatally in the bathtub.
Lyne clarified that this was not a marketing decision. He saw that the original ending wasn’t working with test audiences. Producer Stanley Jaffe suggested Beth shoot Alex.
“He said maybe it should be Anne Archer’s character because she’s the only innocent,” Lyne said. “He almost immediately said, ‘Oh, no, no, no, that’s wrong.’ I grabbed him because I thought it was a good idea. I thought it was true. There’s probably a better idea than either, but that at least felt like a climax at the end of the movie.”
