'Nymphomaniac' Stars on What's the Big Deal (and What's Not)

We’re not afraid to admit that upon seeing Lars von Trier’s ‘Nymphomaniac: Vol. I,’ we had no idea what we just witnessed.

Indeed, the much-talked about film, about a woman’s seemingly uncontrollable sexual appetites that evolve from youth through adulthood, contains aspects that are at once amusing, bemusing, and off-putting. We’d expect as much from von Trier, the button-pusher who brought us “Melancholia,” “Dancer in the Dark,” “Breaking the Waves,” and “Antichrist,” but still, it’s a strange feeling walking out of a movie without really knowing or understanding what we saw.

Since we have a feeling that’s exactly the way von Trier wanted us to feel, we thought we might gain a better understanding of the film and the controversy that surrounds it from his very talented cast, all of whom give impressive performances under challenging circumstances.

[Related: 'Nymphomaniac: Volume I' Trailer Is Very Nearly Not Safe for Work]

We recently spoke with Charlotte Gainsbourg, who plays the emotionally spent nymphomaniac, Joe, as an older woman; Stacy Martin, who makes her daring feature film debut as a young and adventurous Joe; Christian Slater who embarks on difficult new territory as Joe’s ill father; Uma Thurman, who plays a ridiculously distraught woman scorned; and Stellan Skarsgård who plays a bookworm that takes in Joe and becomes the catalyst for her revealing such a revealing story.

While we’re still not sure we understand “Nymphomaniac: Vol. I,” which opens in limited release and On Demand this weekend, having spoken to the cast we can now positively say that we’re looking forward to “Nymphomaniac: Vol. II" on April 4.

How did you embrace the controversy that surrounds the film?

Uma Thurman:
With pleasure. There’s nothing accidental about the controversial nature of this film. It is, after all, called “Nymphomaniac,” people! Lars von Trier would not be anything if not deep thinking, provocative, and ambitious, and perhaps a little kinky … at least curious. Adventurous?

Stacy Martin:
I was just very curious to see how it evolved. I mean from the beginning I knew, I had read [it], I mean I knew what the film was about. And then the controversy started and it was just very interesting because it suddenly switched when the film started coming out and people had said, “But it’s a real movie,” and it just made me laugh and kind of very excited to see people react to it.

Stellan Skarsgård:
Well, first of all, it’s not controversial to me. I mean, I don’t have any problems with sex or nudity or any of those subjects. I understand that in certain cultures sexuality is sort of surrounded by a lot of taboos but it’s not a problem to me. And when you see the film you realize that, already after a couple of minutes, the sexual activity has become as normal a human activity as there are, and it doesn’t take away anything from the substance of the film.

Christian Slater:
I guess I don’t really think about it that much. I think my job is to show up, and play the part that I’m getting the chance to play, and kind of let the chips fall where they may, really. I know that this is a very provocative title, and the subject matter does tend to raise a lot of red flags, but my experience with the movie, certainly, watching it in Berlin, and seeing the story unfold as it does, it’s almost kind of hard for me to even remember the sexual aspects of the film, because I get so caught up in this girl’s emotion journey, and the things that she goes through, and you know the hurdles that she’s trying to overcome, and the pain that she’s dealing with. So that by the end of the film, my heart was so with her and what she’s gone through, that the sexual aspects of the movie really take a back seat.

Charlotte Gainsborough:
What do you mean controversy? You mean that people could be shocked by the subject? Because I believe once people have seen the film, I haven’t heard controversy. I mean people are not that shocked. The subject is about sex, about a woman talking about her sex life, so of course, it’s quite explicit. But I haven’t seen people overly shocked and so I don’t really see what the controversy is.

How does the sexuality add to the substance of the film?

Stellan Skarsgård:
It’s a very vulnerable situation for a woman and if you want to portray somebody who’s desires are in conflict with society, it’s a good choice I think.

Christian Slater:
Well, this is a girl who is certainly dealing with an issue, I don’t want to say a dysfunction, because I think it’s natural for her to have sexual instincts, but I think her beast is manifesting in a particular way, where she just constantly needs to be having sex, you know, filling this void. I think when somebody’s doing something to that kind of extreme measure, they’re actually running from something, you know, they’re hiding, they’re avoiding, they’re using some outside substance to avoid dealing with what’s really going on, and I think we’ll certainly see more of that in “Vol. II,” but by the end of “Vol. I,” I am beginning to understand that what she is going through is dealing with a lot of hurt, and a lot of loss, that her natural sexual instincts have kind of overtaken her and become a dysfunction.

Charlotte Gainsboroug:
I think it is the subject. So you have to be specific and you have to be crude with what [von Trier] is showing. I think he couldn’t be prude, and it also adds, for me, to the beauty of it. I mean, the whole “Vol. I,” watching Stacy explore the character’s sex life is, I’ve found, quite beautiful and that’s of course thanks to her, but also thanks to the way he’s filming it, and having all those different chances filmed in a different way. The aesthetics in the film are very important and there’s something realistic about the sex, but at the same time, very cinematographic. So the explicitness is needed because of the subject and for me it brings a lot into the film, but it couldn’t have been done any differently.

See the theatrical trailer for “Nymphomaniac Vol. I”:

When you heard the title of the film and the director of the film, what did you first imagine?

Stellan Skarsgård:
Well, [von Trier] called me and said, “I’m going to make a porno film and I want you to play the lead in it,” and I knew of course, knowing Lars, I knew it wouldn’t be a porno film but that I knew it would be explicit.

Stacy Martin:
Well I was very familiar with Lars’s work. I’d always been a fan so for me it was something that was just very interesting and quite positive and I was just told that Lars was casting for his new movie, it was called “Nymphomaniac,” Charlotte Gainesbourg was involved, and I would get to have a porn double. And immediately just kind of, just have to go, “Okay. I’m very interested but this sounds crazy.”

Christian Slater:
Let’s see, I think the first time I heard the title, I was in the car with my fiancé, and I was on the phone with my agent on the speaker phone, and he mentioned this title, and this movie, and he said, it’s this movie “Nymphomaniac,” and my fiancé kind of looked at me and said, “Oh God, how many women are you going to have to be with? Are you the nymphomaniac? What am I getting involved with here?”

Was there anything in the filming that made you uncomfortable?

Stacy Martin:
No. What was so great with this is that everyone was just very open about the project and we talked a lot about the nudity and the sexual content and I’d been very honest with Lars and I said to him, “There’s no way that I will ever do anything sexual for this film as much as I love this script and I love you and I love this part,” and he was always on board with that. So immediately I felt reassured and Lars is, you know, he’s very sweet and sensitive and he understood that it’s a difficult film to film and that we need to have the most honest communication because otherwise how are we going to make such a difficult film?

Charlotte Gainsboroug:
Oh sure. A lot of things. Oh, the fellatio was embarrassing. The masochistic part was embarrassing. The part with the two black men was embarrassing. I mean it was part of what I had to put myself through, but at the same time, in some of it, there was a lot of humor and so we had fun doing it. It was funny. But then with the masochistic part, the humiliation was part of what I was going through and at the same time, I wanted to be there. It was a mixture of humiliation and excitement, which was a weird thing to experience but I have to be honest and say that both feelings were there.

Christian Slater:
Well, yeah, I mean look, I was being asked to basically unravel completely, and you know, to the point of loss of body control, so I was concerned. I was scared of doing something like that, but I had such faith and trust in Lars after sitting down and talking with him. Just finding him to be the sweet guy that he is, I pretty much wanted to do anything I possibly could in order to make the film as realistic as possible.

Stellan Skarsgård:
The only thing that made me a little uncomfortable was that me and Charlotte had about 90 pages of text.

Did your family see the film? What did they think?

Charlotte Gainsboroug:
I think [my mom] liked it but I’m not sure. I know that she was very nervous before she saw “Vol. II.” She was nervous that she would have to see me suffer. Because I had explained the masochistic part of the film and she had seen me go through some of the lines with Seligman [Skarsgård] during the shoot. So I think she was much more nervous before seeing the film than after, and finally, it wasn’t that shocking.

Stacy Martin:
I showed the film to my parents and my parents are really cool. I’m really lucky to have supportive parents like them but also, you know, they knew what I was getting myself into. I would call my mom and say, “Mom, you know, today we need to take a cast because we need to do my prosthetic vagina,” and she’d be like, “Okay, honey. Well, you know, remember to take your vitamin and sleep and drink water.”

See the theatrical trailer for “Nymphomaniac Vol. II”:

[Related: Shia LaBeouf Wears a Paper Bag on His Head at Berlin Film Festival]