Actor ponders why his film received dreaded rating while racy 'Black Swan' is rated R.
By Jocelyn Vena
Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling attend the New York premiere of "Blue Valentine" on Tuesday
Photo: Stephen Lovekin/ Getty Images
Both "Black Swan" and "Blue Valentine" push the sexual envelope, but only one of those two movies was deemed racy enough to get an NC-17 rating. And "Blue Valentine" star Ryan Gosling is none too pleased that it was his film that got the dreaded rating.
"There's plenty of oral sex scenes in a lot of movies, where it's a man receiving it from a woman — and they're R-rated. Ours is reversed and somehow it's perceived as pornographic," he said in an interview posted on AceShowbiz.com. " 'Black Swan' has an oral scene between two women and that's an R rating, but ours is between a husband and his wife and that's NC-17?"
Gosling went on to say that he finds it even more unbelievable that his film has been given the rating considering what sort of sexual conduct makes it into most R-rated films. "You start to think, 'How is it possible that these movies that torture women in a sexual context can have an R rating but a husband and wife making love is inappropriate,' " he said. "A lot of people think, 'What's the big deal if it's NC-17, the kids under 17 can't see it,' but that's not true.
"What it really means is it can't play in a major theater chain and you can't have ads for the film on television," he continued. "It stigmatizes the movie in a big way. What we're really saying is not that our kids can't see this movie but nobody can see this movie unless you live in a big city and there's an art house theater."
"Black Swan" director Darren Aronofsky reacted to the rating, saying, "I've heard the 'Blue Valentine' scene is more emotionally authentic."
Regardless of the film's sexual content, "Blue Valentine" leading lady Michelle Williams is proud of her work and hopes that one day her daughter, Matilda, will understand where she was coming from when she made it. She explained, "I feel proud of this movie, and I feel like I could stand behind it when she grows up and says, 'What were you doing for those two months in Pennsylvania?' I feel like I could say, 'This is what I made.' "
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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1653780/20101208/story.jhtml
