Given the central premise of director Jonathan Levine's new comedy Snatched, tone is a tricky thing. Although the movie goes for laughs at each possible moment, the stakes of the story are generated by a plot that involves being kidnapped and pursued by criminals in a foreign country. It forced the filmmakers to do some tricky maneuvering through the film's post-production process... but also led to the cutting of what sounds like could be a very funny scene involving a game of strip poker.
During the Los Angeles press day for Snatched late last month, I had my own mother by my side interviewing the cast and filmmakers behind the movie -- and when sitting down with Jonathan Levine and producer Paul Feig she asked about cut sequences they were sad to lose in editing. The filmmakers explained they were sad to lose a sequence involving a bit of gratuitous nudity that they thought was hilarious -- but then explained why it didn't make the theatrical print:
Jonathan Levine: I would say the strip poker scene was pretty funny. There was a scene when they're on the boat -- and it will end up somewhere -- where Amy and Goldie wind up getting drunk and playing strip poker with the people on the ship. They lose, and they wind up having to be there naked -- not really naked, but movie naked. It was really, really funny, and...Paul Feig: There was one instance of full nudity.Jonathan Levine: There was one instance of full nudity -- full frontal male nudity -- and it just ended up undermining the stakes of the movie. People were like, 'Why are they doing this in the middle of the movie?' So we took it out, even though I do think it's one of the funnier scenes in the movie, it was one of those instances where it undermined the tone and we had to get rid of it.
Funny enough, I actually know that this scene was still included in Snatched up until just a few weeks ago, as I spoke with stars Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn about it in late March. That being said, for all of the reasons Jonathan Levine mentions it makes sense that this bit didn't make it into the film. In the sequence in question, Schumer and Hawn's characters have just narrowly escaped capture, and it would be somewhat throttling to see them suddenly become engaged in a game of strip poker.
As for Paul Feig, he had his own favorite deleted scene from Snatched that he wanted to highlight:
There's also someone getting eaten by a snake that made me laugh quite a bit, but it might be too much, so you pick and choose.
You can watch Jonathan Levine and Paul Feig talk about the deleted strip poker scene in Snatched in the video below!
Snatched, which does still contain some nudity in addition to plenty of other R-rated shenanigans, is in theaters this Friday, May 12th, and be sure to head over here to watch our conversation with Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn!
