Dangerous Method

A Dangerous Method, the new movie about Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud and the birth of psychoanalysis, recently opened in US theatres, and I assume will be coming to Canada soon. The dangerous method is, in part, spanking. Keira Knightly, who plays the role of patient Sabina Spielrein, initially turned down the role because of the spanking scenes.

But in a recent article, Knightly revealed that working with David Cronenberg, Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen (who portrays Freud) was too enticing to walk away. It also helped that Cronenberg promised the two spanking scenes would be clinical.

"I phoned him up initially to turn it down because I thought they were incredibly important for the piece. So it wasn't a question of trying to negotiate them out of the film because I thought they were very necessary for the film. But I just thought, 'I don't think I can do that.'

"So, I phoned up David and said, 'I love you, I love your work, but I really don't think that I want to do this.' And he said, 'Well it would be a tragedy if you turned the role down because of that, so if necessary we can take them out.' And I said, 'No, because I understand why they are there'. He said, 'Well look, I don't want it to be sexy, and I don't want it to be voyeuristic. I want it to be clinical.'

"We talked for quite a long time about exactly what it was and trying to understand it psychologically. Once we discussed, I said 'Alright, fine, as long as it is not sexy. That brutal horrible aspect is kept, and it isn't a sexy spanking scene.'"

Sexy or clinical, I want to see that spanking! Watch it here (thanks, Chross.)