Director Catherine Breillat admitted to choosing Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi to play Paolo because she wanted a well-endowed actor in the role.
In several interviews, director Catherine Breillat appeared to confirm the rumors of actual on-set sex.
"Actors do not simulate: they don't simulate emotions, so at the same time they cannot simulate pleasure - they have to act it. So as they are not going to be able to simulate pleasure, they are going to have to act pleasure. After that it's just really a physical detail. The difficulty is not in the performance from the actor while they are on set; the difficulty comes afterwards. Are they going to be seen performing the act on the screen by society, by their close family, by the people they're in relationships with - this was the real difficulty," Breillat said.
Rocco Siffredi is still smarting from an earlier controversy, the did-they-did't-they sex scene with Caroline Ducey in Romance (1999). It was, he recalls, a fraught day. "There was a bit of a clash and I had to leave the set to calm down," he says. "Caroline seemed to be frightened of me and was crying. When I came back I could not get an erection - it was awful. But then I started to fantasize about Caroline and her boyfriend and it helps me to get back my powers and she put a condom on me and I took her from behind.
"Afterwards that scene caused a lot of problems. She kept phoning me in Italy saying I was mad to tell people that we had sex. I had to tell that I know when I have had sex."
The only theatrical release in Alberta (since the current rating system began in 1997) to receive an "A" rating. ("A" is "Adult" and, in every other case, is only applied to hardcore pornography.)