In Long Shot, out Friday, Seth Rogen plays Fred Flarsky, a Brooklyn journalist who gets hired as a speechwriter by secretary of State and presidential hopeful Charlotte Fields (Charlize Theron) and, as the title suggests, pursues a romantic relationship with her despite their stark differences. About a third of the way into the film, Charlize and Seth finally get it on: After spending several minutes attempting to get their pants off, Fred mounts Charlotte, and both — yes, both! — climax in a matter of ten seconds flat. “Sorry,” says Charlotte. “I usually last a lot longer than that.” At a screening Vulture attended, one woman yelled out, “What the fuck!?”
This scene has been drawing criticism since the film’s South by Southwest premiere, where Mashable’s Angie Han generously ascribed an additional 80 seconds to its run time and expressed frustration at its lack of realism regarding women’s sexuality (something we then picked up on, and thought it’d be fun to ask New York women about). Rogen responded right away, insisting via Twitter that Theron was actually responsible for the mechanics of the sex scene — and that he’d expressed doubt initially, too.
Believe me, I had my doubts and Charlize demanded it was possible much to the shock of myself and director. We went with her suggestion.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) March 11, 2019At last night’s New York premiere, we got a chance to ask Rogen and Theron to explain exactly what happened.
Vulture: So there’s been a bit of controversy surrounding the sex scene.
Rogen: [Laughs.] … There has.
Theron: There’s a few sex scenes, so you gotta be clear.
Vulture: The quick one! And Seth, you had said it was Charlize’s idea. So I want to get the story from you both.
Theron: Oh, the first one. There was an issue?
Rogen: With the positioning, specifically. [Laugh.] Some people had an issue with that, yes. The positioning … and the speed.
Theron: I’m gonna be honest with you. I was tired that day. I didn’t wanna do all the work. I went for comfort.
Vulture: I respect that a lot.
Rogen: Which is a lot like real sex!
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