Saltburn was still released at the end of 2023 one of the most controversial films of the year with an Amazon Prime streaming subscription. Several scenes from Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell’s work sparked controversial discussions or were heatedly shared online.
Perhaps the most shocking Saltburn scene revolves around a grave where pent-up emotions are released in offensive ways. As is now known, the scene was so explicitly escalating not even in the script at first. The director and actor Barry Keoghan improvised them while filming.
Warning, a major spoiler about the Saltburn plot follows!
Shocking Saltburn climax happened spontaneously on set
In Fennell’s film, Oliver (Keoghan), who comes from a humble background, falls in love with his wealthy fellow student Felix (Jacob Elordi) as a newcomer to Oxford University. After he is invited to the rich nobleman’s estate and is allowed to live there longer, a tragic development occurs at some point in Saltburn.
After a party, Felix is found dead in the estate’s maze. After the funeral, Oliver stands alone in front of Felix’s grave drops his pants and penetrates the fresh earth to orgasm.
For many, this moment is seen as Saltburn’s tasteless high or low point. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director and Keoghan spoke in more detail about the scene, which wasn’t initially planned:
I spoke to Barry in the morning and I just said, ‘I don’t know, Barry. I think he would…unzip it.‘ And Barry just said, ‘Yeah.’
Keoghan then requested that the set be isolated from the surroundings and spontaneously performed the scene as it appears in the final film.
Amazon Studios
Jacob Elordi as Felix in Saltburn
For the director, the appeal lies in the length of the bizarre moment. Not cutting away and enduring Oliver’s actions with discomfortwas the intention.
In the interview, Fennell also describes Keoghan’s performance in the scene as “the most extraordinary thing she’s ever seen.”
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