The late Hollywood actor Donald Sutherland once starred in one of the longest sex scenes ever. But it proved too controversial for some TV censors, which necessitated it being cut from the small screen. Alongside co-star Julie Christie, Donald appeared in a romp scene for 1973 flick Don’t Look Now – long before his days as President Snow in the Hunger Games.
Donald played John Baxter in the classic flick, which follows a married couple grieving the death of their young daughter. The pair soon come across two elderly sisters who bear a grave warning from the psychic realm. But the scene on most viewers’ minds lasted five minutes – and saw Donald get saucy with Julie’s character.
The British Board of Film Classification declared the movie way beyond what would be passable to let audiences watch. It gets worse, because fans became sure the stars were actually having unsimulated sex on camera. Julie’s boyfriend at the time, Warren Beatty, even flew out to London where the movie was being filmed and demanded the controversial sex scene be cut.
But Julie said it was “lovely” to film. She said: “I loved the squirming bits and all those things you don’t see. It was just flesh squirming and rolling and touching, and God I thought it was absolutely lovely.
” She added that the scene managed to capture the moment “you know you don’t exist, the other person perhaps doesn’t even exist. It’s just bodies that are existing. It wasn’t even necessarily sexy, what.