Berlin 2013: Joseph Gordon-Levitt to Cut Graphic Sex Out of 'Don Jon's Addiction'

5:56 AM PST 2/8/2013 by Scott Roxborough

73
54
9
0
4
Email
Print
Comments

“It won't affect the movie if we change that,” said the actor, confirming he would edit his film on sex addiction to gain an R rating.

BERLIN – Joseph Gordon-Levitt will cut out the most graphic sex scenes from his directorial debut, Don Jon's Addiction, in order for the film to qualify for an R rating in the U.S., the actor-director said Friday.

Berlin 2013: Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Why 'Don Jon's Addiction' Is 'Sort of Wholesome'

Sundance 2013: Relativity Acquiring 'Don Jon's Addiction' for $4 Million

Don Jon's Addiction: Sundance Review

•Berlin International Film...

PHOTOS: THR's Oscar Nominees Night

“Yes, we expect we have to do that, and I'll be getting started on it as soon as I get back,” Gordon-Levitt said at a press conference at the Berlin International Film Festival, where Voltage Pictures' Don Jon's Addiction is screening in the Panorama section.

Questions about whether the at-times graphic romantic comedy -- in which Gordon-Levitt plays a modern-day Lothario addicted to pornography -- would have to be toned down for U.S. release have been swirling since the film premiered in Sundance.

SUNDANCE REVIEW: 'Don Jon's Addiction'

Relativity Media snagged U.S. rights to the film, which also stars Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore and Tony Danza, from Voltage after a fierce bidding war. But the size of the Relativity deal -- $4 million upfront and a guaranteed $25 million P&A spend -- made it clear an R rating likely was essential if Ryan Kavanaugh's company was to have any chance of making a profit.

To achieve that, the festival version of Don Jon's Addiction will have to be neutered. But the director said he didn't think cutting out the egregious images would affect the story.

“I think it is important that those images are in there, but what precisely you see isn't that important,” Gordon-Levitt says. “What's important is the rhythm of the film, the repetition of what the Don Jon character does, over and over.”

And while pornography and sex addiction are key themes in the film, Gordon-Levitt stressed that Don Jon's Addiction was "really a love story" that aims to explore ideas of intimacy and the media's obsession with sex, packaged in the form of an edgy comedy.