If you are still reeling from the powerful potency of THE NORMAL HEART that was screened on Sky Atlantic TV last night, then here is a little-known fact about how director RYAN MURPHY made the sex scenes so authentic and very sensual.
Whilst most of the actors playing gay men were actually gay (a real novelty in Hollywood even today) lead man Mark Ruffalo is not.
Ruffalo was playing Ned and his affair with Felix is gut wrenching and is one of the relationships that drives the film. It did however, require Ruffalo and Matt Bomer to perform some intense sex scenes in a bathhouse and in bed.
So Murphy hired a former Broadway choreographer who he knew specialised in these scenes and he explained, ‘So he would come and he would work with the actors and it was like, ‘Okay, then you move your leg here, and your asshole goes up here, and then your neck goes over here.’ So we worked on it, so the actors felt like, ‘Okay, I’m in “A Chorus Line.” I can do it.’”
Ruffalo had never even kissed a guy on camera before, and Boomer had never been that intimate in a movie, and although they were both terrified, they put in stunning performances as they knew it was an essential part of the story.
