Maggie Gyllenhaal On The Female Climax

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Romantic comedies aren’t usually MaggieGyllenhaal’s thing. The brave indie starlet, who also appeared in a certainblockbuster about a caped crusader, usually opts for more challenging material. This isthe woman whose breakthrough role in Secretary had her engaging insadomasochistic sex.But Gyllenhaal’s latest movie, Hysteria, isnot your typical rom-com. Set during the late Victorian era, the film is loosely based onthe invention of the vibrator. HughDancy stars as Dr. Mortimer Granville, the physician who would attend to cases of“hysteria” by fingering the women suffering from it.Hysteria atthe time was a loose clinical term, which pretty much summed up unhappy middle-classwomen. Their husbands would lead hypocritical lives, where married sex was for procreationand the pleasure of sex was to be found outside of the family home. Prostitution at thetime was huge, while the women at home would basically get the short end of the…umm… it rhymes with stick.So to cure hysteria, at a time when the femaleorgasm wasn’t acknowledged as even existing, women would be treated by the likesof Dancy’s Granville, whose hands-on methods would soon be replaced by a neat littleinvention.Gyllenhaal (who plays a women’s rights activist andGranville’s romantic interest) talked to us about the humor in the film’spremise and history. “It’s inherently funny that this really buttoned upVictorian group of people [would have doctors] fingering women till they come.That’s a funny juxtaposition.”While Hysteria isn’tvery explicit, Gyllenhaal has never shied away from talking about sex or taking on steamyroles in films like Secretary or Sherrybaby.“I’minterested in sex like everyone else is interested in sex,” she says with amatter-of-factness that should make gawkers ashamed. “And the people I play usuallyhave a sexual life because I do. That’s something I think about in terms of thepeople I play.”Gyllenhaal takes pleasure in being part of a film thatacknowledges the female orgasm, even if most movies and our history do not. “You getto see a lot of women having orgasms [in Hysteria]. I mean that’s more whatit’s about than whether or not they have vibrators. It’s whether or not theyhave orgasms and whether or not you can talk about it.”The actressbrings up a major issue with how female sexuality is represented in Hollywood movies. Takeone look at the Blue Valentine controversy, when the MPAA slapped the film with apoison-pill NC-17 rating, likely because Michelle Williams’ character has an orgasm.Meanwhile, ultra-violent movies or even titles with a whole lot of nudity [but not anexplicit orgasm] can get by with an R rating. The more popularly approved sex on screen isthe kind Gyllenhaal doesn't care for.“You see the softcore porn versionof a movie sex scene,” Gyllenhaal describes, “where you have to have theperfect bra and be lit perfectly, and you’ve negotiated that you can show the sideof your breast. That is terrifying to me. That’s not my thing. I just don’trelate to that. I’ve never had sex like that.”“I’vedone a lot of sex scenes in my life,” Gyllenhaal explains. “I think that sexscenes can be a really interesting way of exploring complicated things in relationships; aconversation that’s happening between people’s bodies. I’ve shot lots ofsex scenes like that. I tried to put my personal experience as a woman intothem.”Certainly, portraying sex on screen doesn’t always come easyto Gyllenhaal, who filled us in on how her experience in Sherrybaby was anythingbut pleasurable. The starlet was young at the time, making a movie about a disturbed womanengaging in hard sex.“We’d be in the basement of some disgustinghouse. I was just really strident. I was like, ‘I’m totally fine. I’mtaking my clothes off. You guys ready to shoot?’ That’s how I got through it.When the movie finished, I thought, I don’t know if I ever want to do that again.That woman was very, very confused and broken in terms of sex. Portraying the way she feltabout her sexuality felt awful.”Nevertheless, the actor is proud of allher work and is currently grappling with whether or not to show her entire oeuvre to her5-year-old daughter -- when she’s old enough, of course. As of right now,Gyllenhaal’s all for it, but she recognizes how her parenting mindset can changewhen the time comes. “At the moment I think I would be pleased for my daughter tosee my work.”And even if she changes her mind about showing offSecretary or Sherrybaby to her daughter, Gyllenhaal now has a rom-comunder her belt that should pose no embarrassment… except for all that orgasmtalk.Hysteria opens today. Continue Reading

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