UNITED KINGDOM: A biopic which looks at the making of the infamous 1972 pornographic film 'Deep Throat,' Amanda Seyfried says portraying Linda Lovelace was the most challenging yet satisfying acting roles

Record ID: 221130

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: A biopic which looks at the making of the infamous 1972 pornographic film 'Deep Throat,' Amanda Seyfried says portraying Linda Lovelace was the most challenging yet satisfying acting roles
  • Date: 12th August 2013
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (AUGUST 12, 2013) (REUTERS) SEYFRIED TALKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTRESS, AMANDA SEYFRIED, SAYING: "I think it's easy to look back to that era. I mean I think it's, I mean it's like the "Boogie Nights" effect, it just looks so fun and sexy and like easy and safe, because things were, didn't feel so, things didn't have such a
  • Embargoed: 27th August 2013 13:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA7453D0MKLLRFTO0AIGF9HFI7H
  • Story Text: "Deep Throat" may very well have changed the global pornographic industry forever, but the story behind the film's star, Linda Lovelace, is one that many might not know nearly as well.
    The biopic follows Linda Lovelace -- real name Linda Marchiano nee Boreman -- through the reality behind the making of the infamous skin flick in a true story of fame, abuse and betrayal set against the sexual revolution of the 1970s.
    In 1972 -- before the internet, before the explosion in the proliferation of the availability of pornography -- "Deep Throat" was a phenomenon as the first scripted pornographic theatrical feature film, featuring a story, some jokes, and an unknown and unlikely star in Lovelace.
    At a special screening in the UK on Monday (August 12), actress Amanda Seyfried -- who plays the title role in the film -- said it was one of the most challenging roles she's yet to take on.

    "The responsibility, I have to say, like of playing somebody and trying to justify her whole thing, that was the hard part, but she also has such an art where it was almost like I'm playing two different people, so I had to really, I had to decide what I was that morning, so that was intense," she said.

    "But God, it was so satisfying, it was like I ate, I had to bite into it in a way that I haven't had to do ever," she explained to Reuters.
    Escaping a strict religious family, the film follows Linda as she discovered freedom and the high-life when she fell for and married charismatic hustler Chuck Traynor, becoming an international centrefold fantasy with an impressive capacity for fellatio.
    Fully inhabiting her new identity, Linda became an enthusiastic spokesperson for sexual freedom and uninhibited hedonism, but six years later she presented another, utterly contradictory, narrative to the world-and herself as the survivor of a far darker story.
    Peter Sarsgaard plays the role of Traynor, who pushes Linda into the world of pornography.
    Asked what his wife, Maggie Gyllenhaal, had said when he was approached for the part, Sarsgaard said it was actually her that encouraged him to do the film.

    "I think one of the reasons she encouraged me to do it was because she was saying, you know, like, 'if you want to you can do it', but strangely I think she thought it would make me feel good," he said.

    "That didn't end up being true and I wrestled with it for a long time and like I've said, it's really mostly about having the materials to create a character and so a lot of times that's all I'm looking for, and you know, if it requires that I explore things that I'd rather not explore, I mean nobody wants to do some of the things -- I would get the call sheet at the beginning of the day and I would go 'come on'," he told Reuters.

    "But like other days the character is also quite playful," he added.
    U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan denied Arrow Productions Ltd's request for a temporary restraining order on Wednesday, a day after the company filed a $10 million lawsuit against the producers and distributor of the R-rated movie.
    The judge's decision was confirmed by Millennium Films, one of the "Lovelace" producers, as well as a lawyer for Arrow, which owns the rights to the 1972 porn film that starred Linda Lovelace.
    In its lawsuit, Arrow contended that the producers of "Lovelace" used more than five minutes of footage from "Deep Throat" without permission.
    Arrow also complained about the biopic's title, citing a trademark it held for the name "Linda Lovelace."
    A lawyer for Arrow at Mandel Bhandari, said his client was considering the next move.

    "Lovelace" debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January, alongside the Paul Raymond-biopic "The Look of Love", which delved behind the scenes of the porn-publishing business in the UK.
    It's the latest in a series of films examining the era of sexual revolution, as traditional taboos over film-making disappear and audiences show a greater than ever hunger for movies looking at the complexities of what went on behind the scenes.
    Seyfried said there was another obvious comparison for the movie.

    "I think it's easy to look back to that era. I mean I think it's, I mean it's like the "Boogie Nights" effect, it just looks so fun and sexy and like easy and safe, because things were, didn't feel so, things didn't have such a stigma in certain industries, so it is pretty easy, for her specific situation , but most people are still cynics about it," she said.

    "My sister is, my dad isn't so I kind of have them fighting about it in front of me, which is really helpful," she added.
    Sarsgaard said being able to make a film like "Lovelace" in the context of the modern pornographic
    "I think the thing that's interesting about this is that we look back at that time I think with a sense of, at least in the States, with a sense of nostalgia, thinking that they were somewhat naive, because all these people are sitting in a theatre watching pornography," he said.

    "Now it's like this thing where somebody's opening up a laptop on the toilet and watching 30 seconds of some clip, you know it's a lot, you know all sorts of way more intense stuff," Sarsgaard added.

    "I think we have this feeling like it was sexual liberation and it was all a lot of fun and I think what's interesting about the story is that, you know, it goes a lot deeper, as they say," he told Reuters.
    Linda Lovelace, who later in life became an anti-pornography activist, died in 2002 at age 53 from injuries she received in a car crash.

    "Lovelace" goes on general release outside the U.S. on August 23.
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