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, Michael Fassbender enters Oscar season with a dick that becomes the talk of the town in 2011's Shame!
Michael Fassbender was in his tenth year as an actor when he landed the lead role in Steve McQueen's Shame, having played the lead role of Bobby Sands in the director's previous film Hunger. Between the two films, Fassbender's star began to rise thanks to notable roles in films like Inglourious Basterds and X-Men: First Class, lending some heat to the upcoming Shame. Not that the film needed any more heat around it, director McQueen had a difficult time casting the film due to its frank and explicit look at sex and sexuality. The film was also destined for an NC-17 rating, the MPAA equivalent of wrapping the film in a brown paper bag in hopes of scaring off the squares.
Fassbender had gone nude for McQueen before, in Hunger, a film which also pushed the actor in a great many ways. Shame was asking more of him, however, placing his nudity in a distinctly sexual context, rather than the decidedly less sexy confines of a hunger strike. Fassbender's character Brandon is a sex addict, but not in the fun David Duchovny/Michael Douglas/Tiger Woods way. No, Brandon is more of the self-destructive, relationship destroying, constantly putting himself at great personal and professional risk kind of sex addict. This guy needs sex in order to function, which obviously puts him at odds with the way society is structured.
There's a normalcy to Brandon's behavior that McQueen establishes early on in the film. As things proceed and his behavior and actions become riskier and more aggressive, Fassbender sells the spiral incredibly well, but only because the film takes its time to establish how much this man's routine centers around sex. McQueen also introduces Fassbender's dick early in the film, wanting to get it out of the way so it doesn't overwhelm the rest of the narrative, but the film kinda stops dead for most people right away.
We meet Brandon laying in bed nude and by the four-minute mark, we see his dick as he makes his way from the bedroom to the bathroom to urinate. While participating in the Hollywood Reporter Actor's Roundtable from 2011, Fassbender admitted that he actually did urinate in the film, telling George Clooney that he was only required to do three takes...
While certainly not "the good times," things only go downhill for Brandon from here, particularly once his equally self-destructive sister (Carey Mulligan) shows up and accelerates his spiral. He attacks her nearly an hour into the film when she catches him masturbating in the bathroom. With nothing more than a towel on, he runs from the bathroom and pins her on the couch, letting his apparatus hang out once again...
He even lets his dingle dangle one more time after having sex with a woman against the window of a Manhattan hotel...
For his part, Fassbender doesn't make a big deal of the nudity—he obviously doesn't have anything to prove to anyone, but he did give at least an indication as to why he's so comfortable with doing this much nudity in a film. In a 2011 interview with Vulture, Fassbender revealed the surprising inspiration behind his decision to go the full monty...
It just baffles me: Women can parade around naked all the time, but the guy conveniently has his pants on. I remember my mom always complaining about that to me, saying, “This is such bullshit, it’s always the women who are naked” … so I did this one for you, Mom! [Laughs.]
Thanks Michael Fassbender's mom, we wouldn't have one of the great moments in cinema if you hadn't brought your son up right. Join us again next week when we take a look at Kevin Bacon's non-kosher delicacy in 1998's Wild Things!
Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy...
—Two of History's Manliest Men Wrestle Naked in Women in Love
—Ewan McGregor Has Got It, Flaunts It in Velvet Goldmine
—A Pair of Stars are Born in Y Tu Mamá También
—Harvey Keitel Goes Hog Wild in Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant
—Viggo Mortensen is Naked From Every Imaginable Angle in Eastern Promises
