- Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "Saltburn."
- "Saltburn" star Jacob Elordi reacted to the bathtub and graveyard scenes in a new interview.
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If you were stunned by the wild "Saltburn" bathtub and graveyard scenes, you're in good company. One of the movie's stars, Jacob Elordi, shared his own reaction to writer-director Emerald Fennell's script.
"I was just really excited when I read that scene, because you don't really see things like that in mainstream movies a lot of the time,'" Elordi said of the bathtub moment in an interview with Stream Wars. "So it's just great that Emerald was allowed to kind of push those boundaries and expose people like that."
"Saltburn" follows Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan), a student who arrives at Oxford University on a scholarship and struggles to fit in with his upper-class peers. He quickly befriends a wealthy and likable student named Felix Catton (Elordi), who invites Oliver to spend the summer at Saltburn, his family's lavish estate.
Oliver's obsession with Felix grows as the movie progresses, leading to a scene in which he sneakily watches Felix masturbate in their shared bathtub. As Felix leaves the room, Oliver gets into the tub and slurps the semen-tainted water before it all goes down the drain.
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But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
In another scene later in the movie, Oliver removes his clothes and thrusts into the soil of Felix's grave.
In his interview with Stream Wars, Elordi said he avoids online chatter and hasn't been exposed to many fan responses. However, he witnessed an audience reaction while attending a Brisbane screening.
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"It was unbelievable because everybody was engaged and sort of gasping at the screen and yelling at the screen," Elordi said. "And I haven't been in a movie like that in a really, really long time."
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The visceral reaction to "Saltburn" extends far beyond the moviegoing experience.
In addition to memes and thirst tweets about Keoghan and Elordi, TikTok user Mr. Consistent went viral for sharing a cocktail recipe inspired by the bathtub scene, comprised of lychee martini, gin, and coconut milk.
There's also a candle selling for $26.40 on Etsy called "Jacob Elordi's Bathwater." The candle's scent options include apple cinnamon, sea salt, and clean cotton.
In an interview with Variety, Keoghan called the bathtub scene "disgusting" but said it reflects his character's deep obsession with Felix.
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"That's why I made the choice to rub my face along the plug hole and not slurp it straight away — because I'm trying to take it to a new level," he said. "Oliver doesn't even know what he's doing; he's confused. He's thinking, 'I just want to be part of it. I want it to be on me. I want it to be me.'"
Elordi shared similar comments about the scene in an interview with USA Today: "It wasn't a shock meant to make people's skin crawl. It was all about devotion and love."
But on a less serious note, the "Euphoria" star said he was "proud" of Keoghan's bathtub scene.
"I was like, 'Thank God, it's mine,'" Elordi joked to Variety in November. "I was very proud. I was very proud to have Barry Keoghan guzzling it like that."
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