:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Fatal-Attraction-Glenn-Close-Michael-Douglas-082026-2ba47e52d9cf4096ba87a08312e8a7ce.jpg "Michael Douglas’ privates are visible for ‘one frame’ of Fatal Attraction, director Adrian Lyne r...")
The groundbreaking 1987 erotic thriller costarred Glenn Close and was nominated for six Academy Awards. Michael Douglas’ privates are visible for ‘one frame’ of Fatal Attraction, director Adrian Lyne reveals The groundbreaking 1987 erotic thriller costarred Glenn Close and was nominated for six Academy Awards. By Rance Collins August 20, 2026 11:03 p.m. ET Leave a Comment :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/FatalAttractionGlennCloseMichaelDouglas0820262ba47e52d9cf4096ba87a08312e8a7ce.jpg) Glenn Close and Michael Douglas in ‘Fatal Attraction’ (1987).
The groundbreaking 1987 erotic thriller costarred Glenn Close and was nominated for six Academy Awards.
Michael Douglas’ privates are visible for ‘one frame’ of *Fatal Attraction, *director Adrian Lyne reveals
The groundbreaking 1987 erotic thriller costarred Glenn Close and was nominated for six Academy Awards.
By Rance Collins
August 20, 2026 11:03 p.m. ET
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Glenn Close and Michael Douglas in ‘Fatal Attraction’ (1987). Credit:
Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection
- Director Adrian Lyne’s *Fatal Attraction*’s first big sex scene includes a humorous moment involving a Michael Douglas’ pants.
- The moment includes, the filmmaker claims, a single frame “of his balls.”
- Douglas has previously discussed his own contributions to the iconic sequence from the groundbreaking erotic thriller.
For Michael Douglas, *Fatal Attraction* showed off far more than his acting chops.
At a screening of *Unfaithful* at the Academy Museum on Aug. 14, the film’s director Adrian Lyne also discussed his seminal erotic thriller, the genre-changing *Fatal Attraction*, which starred Douglas and Glenn Close. The film, which had shown at the same venue the previous night, is famed for its sexually charged story in which Douglas’ Dan Gallagher is trapped in a steamy affair with the increasingly unstable Alex Forrest, played by Close.
The movie’s first sex scene occurs in an atypical location: Alex’s kitchen.
“I try and avoid the bed because it’s a little bit boring,” Lyne explained. “It was over a sink, and what’s nice then is you think, *Well, oh so there’ll be crockery in there or plates or something, and they clank around, you know, and that’s funny, potentially funny. And there could be water in the sink.* It’s nice the way you sort of build on it and build on it ... so she could put a hand in [the water] and she could slosh it around on her breasts.”
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Michael Douglas in ‘Fatal Attraction’.
This humor, Lyne said, is essentially for steamy scenes, because it allows the audience to have places to laugh.
“I think there always has to be humor. I think that’s really important, because people — especially in England and America, I think — sort of are a little bit embarrassed. So if you don’t give them something to laugh at, they’ll laugh at you, and then you’re screwed,” he continued.
Douglas, Lyne said, is especially good at playing these comedic beats.
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Director Adrian Lyne in April 2017 in Los Angeles.
Todd Williamson/Getty
“He’s got a lovely sense of humor, Michael,” Lyne said. “He’s very good with comedy, and when he was trying to get out of his pants at the end, and he couldn’t, and she was sort of laughing. And before we did the scene, he said, ‘Are you sure you want to shoot it this way?’”
Lyne explained to Douglas that he did, though Douglas did not “have any underwear on,” the director recalled, since in the scene, his underwear is around his feet.
“There’s one frame, one frame only, of his balls,” Lyne revealed.
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‘Unfaithful’ director tempted Richard Gere with food to make the actor ‘a little bit overweight’ for movie
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At the *Fatal Attraction *screening on Aug. 13, Lyne added of the secret frame, “We left it in. It’s so quick you didn’t see it,” according to Gold Derby.
Douglas has previously talked about the sex scenes from the movie, including in an interview for *EW Reunites *in 2017.
“Sex in movies is always a delicate line. Glenn was raring to go,” Douglas shared. “We got up there on the kitchen table, and she came up with this great idea with the sink, with the water running and making herself wet, which is always good.”
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While Douglas echoed Lyne’s sentiments on the scene’s laugh breaks, he did take credit for the pants moment, contrasting with Lyne’s recent description of Douglas’ hesitation.
“The only thing I threw in, I remember, was this moment where we were going at it, [and since] I like comic relief, I think you need a second [of it], and there’s a second where I had my pants down [while] carrying Glenn, then tripping, and then having to make this run for the bed ... It kind of let the audience relax for a second.”
Future screenings and events at the Academy Museum include a series presenting films shot in VistaVision presented in the original horizontally projected format. Movies in the series include *The Ten Commandments*, *North by Northwest*, *White Christmas*, and *One Battle After Another*.
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Published: August 21, 2026 at 07:00AM on Source: PRIME TIME
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