No one who sees Ridley Scott’s new film House of Gucci will question the passion of the cast and crew. The film possess a unique, almost comical, sense of pizzazz that perfectly suits the over-the-top fashion mavens as they fight to survive the cutthroat stakes of their industry. It colors the way they talk, the way they eat and drink… and yes, the way that they have sex. Lady Gaga and Adam Driver have a knock down, drag out sex scene early on in House of Gucci that says everything about their heated courtship. And when I asked Ridley Scott about the staging of that scene, he explained how music helped him unearth the inherent humor in their torrid pairing. Scott’s take on the scene is above.
This is not a plot spoiler, by any means. You know going into House of Gucci that Adam Driver’s character, Maurizio, is going to fall head over boots in love with Patrizia Reggiani, played by pop icon Lady Gaga. In one of their earliest scenes together, the two find themselves in a trailer office on a construction site and, believing themselves to be alone, start engaging in passionate sex. But it’s the kind of sex that slams into walls, tears down furniture, and ends up on a desk, simply because the lovers were hurtling towards the floor and would have ended up somewhere.
The lengthy scene is set to very specific music, which House of Gucci director Ridley Scott says is very intentional. When appearing as a guest on CinemaBlend’s official podcast, ReelBlend, Scott told the hosts:
In the sex scene, I didn’t plan it to run so long. I think it’s quite a long time. But what I suddenly saw in the scene, because these two are fearless and formidable, I suddenly saw (that) it’s funny. And so that’s why we put in Puccini’s opera over it. Because she said to me at the beginning, ‘What do you want this to be?’ I said, ‘I want you to fuck him like a man.’ She said, ‘Okay.’ But then going from that, you glide across the church music without knowing its George Michael incoming. So that’s a great moment where you are going from this serious sex scene that will bond the marriage to church and, oh my god, as you come to Adam, you’ve got George Michael clicking in, ‘You’ve got to have faith.’
Throughout a lot of House of Gucci, Ridley Scott uses pop songs of the time frame to tremendous effect, and George Michael’s bubbly Faith following that sex scene is a perfect example. Directing the scene is one thing, but participating in it is another thing entirely. Speaking with Adam Driver about the amount of prep that went into the scene, he explained to CinemaBlend:
We block it out, vaguely. We talk about, ‘We’ll do this, and that.’ But the way that Ridley shoots promotes spontaneity. He has, (as) minimum usually, four cameras. And that one, actually, was not. It was mostly hand-held, and I think it was one camera. I think it might have been the only time in the whole shoot that it was one camera. Maybe two cameras, actually. We blocked it out very vaguely, and then I think we maybe did it once or twice. Lady Gaga is very much in her body, because she’s a performer. And I feel I know where my body is, and on stage, in particular. So we felt really comfortable with each other going where we needed to go.
The relationship between Maurizio and Patrizia is the engine that makes House of Gucci roar, when they are in their intense highs, and fighting through their devastating lows. Ridley Scott’s movie is in theaters now, go grab tickets and go along for the ride.
