The
Trials
and Tribulations of Actors in Bondage
Evan Rachel Wood (see below) is not the only actor to experience pain and/or discomfort doing bondage scenes in movies. While many such scenes are faked, perhaps even the majority, many are not. One bit of fakery that is quite amusing occurs in POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990); a case where the audience is let in on a moviemaker's secret as Meryl Streep is 'tied' to a giant cactus with a ready-made bunch of rope loops. On the other hand there is no way of faking the dramatic torture scene in The LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (1996) which sees Geena Davis bound semi-naked to a giant water wheel and repeatedly half-drowned. In any event Geena is known for doing most of her own stunts. I have never read any complaints from this actor about the scene but it must have been pretty demanding to say the least! And an early scene in the movie sees her walking barefoot through snow, too. That could be faked but possibly not.
From time to time actors have expressed varying degrees of unhappiness over their experience of bondage in movies. And one sometimes suspects that an uncomplaining actor did in fact experience discomfort; he or she seems to be genuinely rubbing sore wrists after release!
Annabella Sciorra plays a psychiatrist in the movie WHISPERS IN THE DARK (1992) in which one of her patients attacks her and leaves her hogtied on the floor in her clinic. The movie shows her tightly bound and, in fact, she was! She later reportedly complained that she had been kept tied for ten hours during the making of the movie. That does seem an excessively long time so either the moviemaker was a bit obsessed or perhaps she was tied and untied and retied for various shots over such a long period. It seems this is the only bondage scene this actor has participated in; perhaps with good reason!
Another actor who was deterred from doing bondage scenes is Cybill Shepherd, probably best know for the TV series Moonlighting. Cybill had to be tied up in a cave in a scene in The RETURN (aka: The ALIEN'S RETURN - 1980). In her autobiography (a recommended read!) Cybill Disobedience (New York, HarperCollins, 2000) she tells of being tied up while the prop man was trying to light some gas lamps - without a lot of success. One lamp exploded nearby but she could not get loose from her bonds and ever since then has disliked being tied up - understandably.
Also in her autobiography Cybill comments on the famous episode in MOONLIGHTING titled Atomic Shakespeare, a satire on Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Cybill playing Maddie playing Shakespeare's Kate is to be bound, gagged and married off to Bruce Willis, aka David aka Petruchio. Cybill commented that although some women are turned on by bondage she is not and thought that in this case the binding and gagging were symbolic of violence towards women. She might be right but interestingly this episode of the series won more awards than any other.
Complaints have also come from Sheryl Lee who was bound and gagged face-down fully nude on a bed in JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRES (1998). Although this actor is no stranger to both bondage and nudity in movies and TV shows she seemed to have been somewhat miffed by her experience while making this movie. She is reported as saying she 'felt extremely uncomfortable for the whole time she was bound like that and really felt her vulnerability.'
The usually irrepressible Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) had some complaints after making the movie ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK (1988). In the climactic scene the mob drag Elvira from the local prison and take her to a stake in the midst of a pile of faggots - ready for lighting. Elvira is bound to the post, arms behind, with numerous loops of rope while the fundamentalists chant cries for her death. As the flames lick her body Elvira remembers a magic ring she is wearing which she uses to call down rain upon the town and soon she is free. It has been reported that Cassandra Peterson complained she had spent too much time - evidently for more than one take - tied to the stake in this movie. 'Never again,' she said.
Other complaints have come from Rachel Weisz and Teri Hatcher. Rachel starred in The MUMMY (1999), a movie with a graphic scene which has the heroine fettered on an altar alongside a mummy. The filming of that scene took some days and Rachel was later quoted as complaining, 'I was handcuffed on an altar in a rat-infested cemetery with them clambering over my body for a whole week.' And surely Teri Hatcher must be one of the most tied-up women in movies and TV. Not only was she bound in several movies but in numerous episodes of the TV series LOIS AND CLARK. It has been reported that Teri complained about being tied up so often in the series but I have no confirmation of this.
One suspects that occasionally a director enjoys tying up his female star. One of the most controversial moviemakers was Howard Hughes. And his film, The OUTLAW (1943) was the centre of much controversy when Hughes featured the voluptous Jane Russell in promotional material that made good use of her breasts. The movie has circulated in different versions with some omissions but one dramatic scene has Jane tied stretched between trees, later to be re-tied as a bait. Reportedly Hughes re-shot this scene over and over many times. Evidently he enjoyed it immensely.
And, to round things off (as we might say), bondage isn't the only source of complaints. Yvonne De Carlo was spanked (with her on-screen 6-year-old daughter) in The BRIDE WASN'T WILLING (aka: FRONTIER GAL - 1945). She was later quoted as complaining the movie spanking was too hard.
- Mark Owen
Being kept bound and gagged
for lengthy period was not the only discomfort experienced by Rachel
and the other teen actors in the movie. The story starts on a farm,
where Maggie (Kate Winslett) is a struggling widow with two young
daughters, Dot (Jenna Boyd) and
Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood). Lily has a boyfriend who one day, with an
Indian, takes the girls for a
ride. They don't return and Maggie goes searching for them. The men are
dead but she finds her youngest daughter alive. However, Lilly is
missing. Maggie can't get anyone to help so turns to her estranged
father. She and dad and Dot go looking for Lilly. The movie is slow and
it is not until 40 minutes that we get our first view of the now
captive Lily. She is with a group of seven other young girls destined
to be sold as
sex-slaves in Mexico - all tied wrists behind, ankles tied, and gagged
with thin leather cleaves. The gags seem to be a part of a sort of
harness affair with leather thongs running around their foreheads. The
girls are seen again at about 50 minutes in a rather brutal encounter.
At 63 minutes Lilly struggles with her bonds and gets loose, pulling
the cleave away from her mouth. She tries to ride off on a horse but is
caught. At 69 minutes the recaptured Lilly is sitting against a rock,
bound by wrists and ankles and gagged.
An Indian comes up to her, pulls down the gag and stuffs her mouth with
a handful of dirt, saying (in Indian) 'This is what the rest of your
life will taste like.' He then slips the cleave back over her
dirt-filled mouth and another Indian ties a large cloth right over her
face - covering her mouth, nose and eyes. Shortly after we see Lilly on
a horse, the cloth still in place, her wrists tied to the pommel. The
final showdown comes from about 95 minutes - with much violence.
Lilly's face is still covered when we see her and the other girls are
sitting around bound and gagged. Of course, Lily is rescued in the end.
- Mark Owen
- Mark Owen