{"id":130113,"date":"2025-09-03T16:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T16:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/130113\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T16:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T16:34:08","slug":"oliver-hermanus-on-lack-of-explicit-sex-in-the-history-of-sound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/130113\/","title":{"rendered":"Oliver Hermanus On Lack of Explicit Sex in ‘The History of Sound’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a world premiere at Cannes<\/a>, Oliver Hermanus<\/a> brought his \u201cThe History of Sound\u201d<\/a> to the east coast on Monday night for its New York City premiere. His historical wartime romance follows Paul Mescal<\/a> and Josh O\u2019Connor<\/a> as they journey through a post-World War America, and follows a decades-long quiet connection that reverberates through one man\u2019s lifetime.<\/p>\n

Early buzz of the film<\/a> teased hot and steamy sex scenes between the co-stars. However, following its debut in France, the film\u2019s approach opted to tell a softer love story without explicit intimacy. \u201cThere are many different kinds of sex scenes in the film, one of which is Paul\u2019s character just walking around Josh\u2019s character\u2019s house, his apartment,\u201d Hermanus told IndieWire on the red carpet. \u201cI tried to, you know, suggest that queer people, gay people, can have relationships that are more than just hookups. This is about the deeper things. I\u2019m proud of my choice.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"NEW<\/a> \"Remake\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

As for how the duo developed their chemistry, the director said that it was obvious from the very beginning. \u201cWe hung out a few times in London a lot and there was one night I was at a friend\u2019s house and they were both over, I think I was DJing, I was hanging out, and it was immediately at ease with which they got on, and by the time we were shooting the movie, it was its own thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done my fair share of sex scenes, I\u2019m like, \u2018been there, done that,\u2019\u201d Mescal previously told us at Cannes.<\/a> \u201cWhat feels slightly different about this from [other] romantic relationships onscreen, I would say in the hierarchy of their relationship, physical touch isn\u2019t the priority. It\u2019s intellectual stimulation, it\u2019s friendship. Not that they\u2019re not physically attracted to each other; they very much are, but their chemistry is born from this shared love of these folk songs, and it extends from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this project, O\u2019Connor will have three indie releases in 2025 alone, along with \u201cRebuilding\u201d and \u201cThe Mastermind.\u201d Reflecting on often starring in independent films, he told us, \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily see them as independent movies or studio or anything like that. It\u2019s really to do with just good stories, characters, that feel like they\u2019re challenging me or, oftentimes, characters that I can learn from and develop as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, O\u2019Connor wrapped filming on Steven Spielberg\u2019s next film<\/a>, set to release in 2026. He told us that working with the director was \u201cthe best ever. He\u2019s the boss, I learned so much from him. He\u2019s still inquisitive. He\u2019s still excited, like a child, when he sees something he likes, he wants to do it more. He\u2019s a big inspiration to me.\u201d The project also stars Emily Blunt, Colman Domingo, Colin Firth, and Eve Hewson. Kristie Macosko Krieger will produce for Amblin Entertainment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe History of Sound\u201d received positive reviews at Cannes, with\u00a0IndieWire\u2019s Ryan Lattanzio writing<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cThe false notes are rare in director Oliver Hermanus\u2019 affecting and dustily textured romance \u2018The History of Sound,\u2019 written by Ben Shattuck from his own short story about men in love, together and apart, circa World War I and its aftermath. But for a queer love story starring two of the hottest, of-this-moment leading actors around \u2014\u00a0Paul Mescal\u00a0and\u00a0Josh O\u2019Connor\u2014 \u2018The History of Sound\u2019 almost perversely denies your expectations of what a gay romance could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

MUBI will release the film on Friday, September 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a world premiere at Cannes, Oliver Hermanus brought his \u201cThe History of Sound\u201d to the east coast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88,2695,5450,28722,28723],"class_list":{"0":"post-130113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-film","11":"tag-interviews","12":"tag-josh-oconnor","13":"tag-oliver-hermanus"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}