Fantasy violence is one thing, a little sex is something else, but oblivious audiences will be in for a big surprise when they see the brutal rape of Sally Jupiter in the Watchmen movie.
I'm not one of those who called "The Dark Knight" too violent and dark even though it had a dude getting his face burned off. And I'm ticked at the rumor that Lionsgate may tone down the Punisher movie. Call me jaded, but I've never had a problem with violence in movies--especially comic booky fantasy violence. And hey, a bit of boob or a mild sex scene is totally acceptable if it has its place in the story, but what will people say about the rape scene in the Watchmen movie? This will be a first in the genre. Here is what actress Carla Gugino said about it...
“It was really brutal. It was brutal to shoot,” Gugino said of the scene, in which the Comedian (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) attacks an young Sally Jupiter, who only manages to avoid getting raped by the timely intervention of fellow mask Hooded Justice. “That was one of the things [director] Zack [Snyder] said to me from the start: ‘I really want this to be incredibly brutal. It’s not a turn-on kind of story. It’s bad.’ It’s important that we did that. I think hopefully it will be really powerful.”
No matter how uncomfortable, however, it’s ultimately a scene that really HAS to be in the film, Gugino said, since it influences so much of what comes after: Sally’s retirement from crimefighting, her self-image as a sex-symbol, and, of course, her second, consensual, sexual encounter with the Comedian later on.
"“It’s so informative of so many things thematically in the movie and certainly in the graphic novel, not only for this character but for the Comedian and ultimately [her daughter] Laurie,” Gugino said. “Many things stem from that particular situation.”