I will start this out with a bit of honesty: I tried reading FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. Yeah, before the novels exploded into success, I tried the first few pages of the novel and was completely blown away by just how poorly written it was. I mean, the writing is on par with a high school creative writing class and that may be a generous assessment. Needless to say, the filmmakers needed to tweak the material a bit to make it worthy of being a feature film. That means excising or changing some sections of the novel.
One scene in question has become known as “The Tampon Scene”. Fans of the novel have been wondering if this moment from the book would be translated for the big screen and the answer is a resounding no. For those of you who want to know (trust me, you don’t), the scene has Christian Grey pulling a tampon out of Anastasia Steele. Yeah. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson says there wasn’t any discussion about including the scene, but producer Michael De Luca gives a little more insight in the changes from page to screen.
“The book needed to put you in Ana’s shoes to be a successful experience. A lot of it was very literal. The movie didn’t need to do that. It’s a completely different medium.”
They go on to say the balance of sex in the film is about even with the non-carnal scenes which may be disappointing or encouraging depending on which camp you fall in regarding the film. Here is what author E.L. James had to say about it.
“People who haven’t read the books might be surprised that there isn’t more sex on the screen, but that’s because they’ve gone by media reports of ‘Fifty Shades,’ which have tended to err on the side of the sensational. I’m pretty sure the millions of fans who have the read the trilogy will think there is enough sex.”
As someone who respects a good sexual thriller, something we don’t get many of from Hollywood these days, this could be good news that FIFTY SHADES OF GREY is actually a film rather than another TWILIGHT retread. I mean, there is no way the movie can be as poorly written as the books, right? Right?
FIFTY SHADES OF GREY dominates screens beginning February 13th.