It is one of the oldest rules in Hollywood: sex sells. The Fifty Shades of Grey franchise pretty much built itself from the ground up off of that idea, and the series will continue to arouse audiences all around the world when Fifty Shades Darker premieres this weekend. That said, according to the film's star Jamie Dornan, certain sex toys used during the production of the upcoming sequel simply didn't want to cooperate at times. Dornan explained:
The spreader bar. They made that. They were actually really struggling to get their hands on that. ... It didn't work a couple of times and held us back a little bit. It didn't quite achieve what we wanted it to achieve, but when it mattered, it worked -- so it was all good.
Even with no context provided, I think if you hear the name "spreader bar" you will probably assume that its intended use is nothing less than kinky. If Jamie Dornan's comments to EW tell us anything, it is that filming a sex scene in the Fifty Shades franchise isn't quite as hot or steamy as the trailers would lead us to believe. The scenes involving the device (which was custom made for the movie) were incredibly difficult to film, and quite a bit of movie magic needed to be conducted to make the sequences look better in the final cut.
For those of you who maintain somewhat bland sex lives, the spreader bar is a piece of bondage gear designed to restrain one's partner. They're (apparently) fairly common in the bondage community, but the prop crew behind the movie actually had to create a brand new one to suit the needs of the film and match the one described in the books. Considering how insanely popular the Fifty Shades franchise has become over the years, we have a distinct feeling that the modified spreader bar used during Fifty Shades Darker will likely become a hot online purchase once someone figures out how to license it.
Sex toy issues aside, it generally sounds like the crew behind Fifty Shades Darker was eventually able to cope with certain problems presented by the outlandish devices, and the actors even found ways to make the bondage scenes more organic. As it turns out, Dakota Johnson's tendency to laugh during takes (combined with her and Dornan's chemistry together) helped lend a sense of playfulness and approachability to the otherwise bizarre sex scenes. If you're already a fan of the series, then it sounds like you will definitely get more of what you love when the film debuts on Friday.
We will bring you the latest, greatest, and sexiest updates related to the release of Fifty Shades Darker as more information becomes available to us. The sequel will hit theaters this weekend on February 10. Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to Google spreader bar prices.
Check out a trailer for Fifty Shades Darker on the next page for an even closer look at the steamy bondage action in the upcoming sequel!
