Robert Downey Jr was keen to let everyone know he thinks one of his co-stars is pretty “bangable” after they donned special bum pads for racy sex scenes. The Oppenheimer Oscar winner let his Avengers co-star Mark Ruffalo know that he was pretty sexy appearing alongside Emma Stone in Poor Things. He shared plenty of racy bonking scenes with Emma, but fretted he was “too old” at 56 to romp with the 35-year-old La La Land star. But when Mark aired these worries, RDJ was the one to put them to bed. Speaking on a video for Variety’s Actors on Actors, Mark confessed of the sex scenes: “I was like, ‘Do I have to?’ All I can hear is, 'Nobody wants to see your old a** anymore. “Maybe you shouldn’t be doing movies like that anymore.' I mean, it’s my least favourite part of it, but I also saw it as an extension of the physical
comedy that we were already finding. So it was just another way to tell the story." Robert then told him: “I just want to say this, too, because knowing you forever, on one of these Avengers movies, you take off your shirt, and you were in really good shape. And the director was like, 'We got it.' You’re like, 'Can I please stop dieting and working out now?' “There is no one I’ve ever come across who is more anxious to not be vain past the point where it is necessary to achieve an end for their work.” Ruffalo interrupted him to ask: “Was that a compliment?” as Downey Jr responded: “It’s a huge compliment.” He then dropped the bombshell: “But I’ve got to say, you look pretty bangable to me, in case you were wondering." Mark thanked him, before admitting that bum pads helped him achieve the perfect silhouette to play lawyer Duncan Wedderburn. He said: “It was even more extreme. [Director Yorgos Lanthimos] wanted me to look like a bird, so I had this whole built out chest piece that never made it because it was just too much. Did you know I had an a** pad in? My legs were, like, four inches bigger. My calf was four inches. “The big a**-pads, the leg pads, the thigh pads, the calf pads, those were all playing. So when you look at that and you’re like, ‘Wow, he looks great’ – now you know I was just wearing what the Avengers wear, but underneath my clothes.” Despite being nervous about stripping off on-screen, Mark told the BBC: “I think [the attitude to sex scenes has] gotten… a little bit prudish, and like a new Victorian age, in a sense.” Emma, meanwhile, told the
New York Times of her character Bella Baxter: “She has no shame about her body and her sexuality and who she is, and I am so proud of that aspect of the film.”