Reese Witherspoon says she 'didn't have control' over her 'Fear' sex scene with Mark Wahlberg: 'It wasn't a particularly great experience'

• Reese Witherspoon told Harper's Bazaar that she "didn't have control" over a sex scene in "Fear."

• The star said it "wasn't explicit in the script that that's what was going to happen" and she "said no."

• "It wasn't a particularly great experience," Witherspoon told the magazine.

Reese Witherspoon revealed that she wasn't comfortable filming an intimate scene for the 1996 psychological thriller "Fear," but it ended up being a "formative" part of her understanding of Hollywood.

"I didn't have control over it," Witherspoon, 47, said in a cover story for Harper's Bazaar, published Wednesday.

"Fear," directed by James Foley and written by Christopher Crowe, stars Witherspoon as a teen named Nicole Walker, who begins a romantic relationship with the mysterious David McCall (Mark Wahlberg). David initially wins her over with his charm, but as the movie progresses, he becomes increasingly possessive, manipulative, obsessive, and violent.

In her interview with Harper's Bazaar, Witherspoon was referring to one of the film's most memorable scenes, in which Nicole is digitally stimulated and orgasms while riding a roller coaster with David. The actor, who was 19 during filming, told the publication that she asked for a stunt double for the parts of the scene that focused on her lower half.

Witherspoon said that there was ambiguity regarding that particular scene in the script.

"It wasn't explicit in the script that that's what was going to happen, so that was something that I think the director thought of on his own and then asked me on set if I would do it, and I said no," she recalled. "It wasn't a particularly great experience."

The "Legally Blonde" star added that she's "certainly not traumatized or anything by it, but it was formative."

"It made me understand where my place was in the pecking order of filmmaking," Witherspoon said.

The actor said her experience also made her more conscious of devoting herself to telling more female-centric stories.

"I think it's another one of those stories that made me want to be an agent for change and someone who maybe can be in a better leadership position to tell stories from a female perspective instead of from the male gaze," she said.

A representative for director James Foley didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Correction: July 14, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misattributed the director as David Foley. It is James Foley.

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