Monday, March 10, 2014
Fatal Attraction and the 'bunny boiler' that nearly wasn't.
Today's Guardian contains a fascinating retrospective on the 1980s classic film Fatal Attraction by the film's author James Dearden, and why the stage version portrays the Glenn Close character more favourably.
His piece contains the important revelation that things could have been so much different:
The movie actually spawned an expression, "bunny-boiler", to describe a certain kind of vengeful, unhinged female. This has since gone into the lexicon – a dubious honour, but an honour nonetheless, I suppose. In fact, I originally wanted Alex Forrest, played by Glenn Close, to grill the unfortunate rabbit on a rotisserie. Somehow, I don't think "bunny-broiler" has quite the same ring.
Mr. Dearden reveals that Glenn Close strongly resisted the rewrite, brought on by test screenings, in which her character is 'blown-away' in the bathroom of the family home. It was an ending that generated $300m for the film worldwide.
It appears that this injustice, meted out to 'a lonely and desperate woman', may well be put right on stage.
His piece contains the important revelation that things could have been so much different:
The movie actually spawned an expression, "bunny-boiler", to describe a certain kind of vengeful, unhinged female. This has since gone into the lexicon – a dubious honour, but an honour nonetheless, I suppose. In fact, I originally wanted Alex Forrest, played by Glenn Close, to grill the unfortunate rabbit on a rotisserie. Somehow, I don't think "bunny-broiler" has quite the same ring.
Mr. Dearden reveals that Glenn Close strongly resisted the rewrite, brought on by test screenings, in which her character is 'blown-away' in the bathroom of the family home. It was an ending that generated $300m for the film worldwide.
It appears that this injustice, meted out to 'a lonely and desperate woman', may well be put right on stage.
