Throughout cinema history, there have been some iconic nude scenes that have transcended the bounds of the films in which they appeared. Our weekly column Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy will take an in-depth look at these scenes, their history, their deeper meanings, and their legacy. This week, two rising stars take a major career gamble by starring in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho!
As we've discussed before in our articles on Y Tu Mamá También and Brokeback Mountain, there was a time when a straight actor signing on to play a gay character could irreparably damage that actor's career. This narrow-minded way of thinking kept many actors from taking that plunge, but thankfully a great many talented young straight actors turned their noses up at such a suggestion. Back in 1991, Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix were both near the peak of their relatively young careers, but they were also actors of a new generation, one unafraid of what one role in one film could potentially do their careers.
Around this same time, director Gus Van Sant was becoming a big figure in the world of independent cinema thanks to the breakout success of Drugstore Cowboy. Having just read John Rechy's book "City of Night" about street hustlers, and being quite versed in the world of street hustlers himself, Van Sant next set out to make an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henriad set within the world of teenage street hustlers. While initially written entirely in Shakespearean iambic pentameter, Van Sant soon dropped that conceit, but still left in a handful of scenes in meter as he created the script for My Own Private Idaho.
The film centered around two hustlers making their way from Portland to the titular state, before ending up in Rome, and finally back in Portland. Mike is a narcoleptic hustler who is also gay, while Scott is a rich kid running away from his parents and only sleeping with men for money. Like so much of Van Sant's work, the journey is the point, as these two men do a lot of soul searching and self-discovery under the guise of an intentional journey that itself is usually a red herring. Here, Scott and Mike try desperately to find the latter's mother, but what they're really finding are themselves.
As Van Sant sought financing to make the film, he thought it would be beneficial to attach some marginally big names to the property to better attract investors. He sent the script to the agents representing Keanu Reeves and Kiefer Sutherland, the latter of whom admitted he never even read it and turned it down to go skiing instead. Reeves, on the other hand, liked the script and agreed to play the part of Scott on the condition Van Sant consider his friend—and recent co-star of Lawrence Kasdan's I Love You to Death—River Phoenix for the role of Mike.
Reeves personally drove himself and the script to Phoenix's home to try and secure his participation in the film, though there was some initial friction between them over who would play which part. Phoenix eventually agreed to play Mike, but production would have to wait until he finished shooting another indie, Nancy Savoka's Dogfight. The nine month delay meant that Van Sant's initial financiers backed out of the $2 million production, leaving him to shop it around once again, eventually landing at New Line Cinema with an increased budget of $2.5 million.
It simply cannot be overstated how much of a talent River Phoenix truly was and how deeply is loss continues to be felt throughout the industry. In a move almost unheard of at the time, Phoenix himself re-wrote the film's famous campfire confession scene himself, wherein his Mike confesses his true feelings for Keanu's Scott. Phoenix was allegedly unhappy that the script was ambiguous when it came to Mike's sexuality, especially once he began researching and inhabiting the role. He was given the freedom by Van Sant to develop what turned into an eight page monologue that serves as the emotional core of the film.
Reeves himself was no slouch in adequately defending his decision to appear in the film. When pressed by Paige Powell and Gini Sikes of Interview Magazine in a piece published at the time of the film's release, Keanu was asked if he thought taking such a role might "hurt his image," responding...
"Hurt my image? Who am I—a politician? [laughs softly] No. I’m an actor. That wasn’t a problem."
That he said this 30 years ago makes it all the more revelatory in light of how cagey actors can be when addressing similar questions to this very day. As to the film's content, it's honestly not as explicit as one might expect given the director and subject matter. It's sort of the true definition of an art film as the sex scenes are done in time lapse tableaux vivant, where the actors hold certain still poses that are then cut together to suggest action without ever actually showing any of the action.
This is best represented in the scene where Mike and Scott meet up with Hans (Udo Kier), a closeted gay man who gives the boys a ride to Portland in exchange for sex...
While the scene may not fit the traditional definition of "sexy," it's certainly a very erotic scene, charged with sex without actually showing any sex. It's a bold and unique way to approach something so central to the film's being and only helps to reinforce the dreamy and episodic nature of the film and life itself.
In closing, I want to leave you with my favorite bit from River and Keanu's piece in Interview Magazine. It's an absolutely incredible set of statements by two of the finest and savviest actors of their generation...
SIKES: I remember reading an interview with Robert Downey Jr. after Less Than Zero, where he said he was afraid people would harass him because of his character. Has anyone reacted strongly to your roles?
PHOENIX: Fuck them. That’s all I can say. A big capital F, a U-C-K, and THEM. T-H-E-M.
REEVES: Get a clue, man.
SIKES: So you haven’t had any negative—
REEVES: No. I get negative shit all the time. I don’t care.
Catch up with ALL of our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy...
—Oliver Reed Alan Bates in Women in Love
—Ewan McGregor in Velvet Goldmine
—A Pair of Stars are Born in Y Tu Mamá También
—Harvey Keitel in Bad Lieutenant
—Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises
—Jason Segel in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
—Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game
—David Bowie and Rip Torn in The Man Who Fell to Earth
—John Cameron Mitchell in Hedwig and the Angry Inch
—Ross Lynch in My Friend Dahmer
—Rocketman vs. Bohemian Rhapsody
—Bruce Willis in Color of Night
—Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu in Bertolucci's 1900
—Louis Garrel in Godard Mon Amour
—Henry June and the NC-17 Rating
—The Gay Cowboys of Brokeback Mountain
—Eddie Redmayne in Danish Girl
—Tom Cruise in All the Right Moves
—Christopher Atkins in The Blue Lagoon
—Sylvester Stallone in The Italian Stallion
—9 Songs Combines Real Music with Real Sex
—The Naked Men of A Room with a View
—John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus
—Ben Affleck's Abnormally Smooth Dick in Gone Girl
—Joseph Gordon-Levitt inMysterious Skin
—Will Smith in Six Degrees of Separation
—Richard Gere in American Gigolo
—Ralph Fiennes and Matthias Schoenaerts in A Bigger Splash
—The Naked Gay Men of Love! Valour! Compassion!
—Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley
—David Naughton in An American Werewolf in London
—Cillian Murphy in 28 Days Later
