It seems that Andrea Riseborough had an virtually psychic reference to Brandon Cronenberg when studying the screenplay, or not less than caught on to the best way he could have hinted on the concept within the up to date script. Cronenberg recalled the second the actress urged that her character ought to, certainly, don a penis for the scene:
“I sat down with Andrea for one of many first conversations we had as soon as she had already signed on to the movie, and one of many first issues she stated once we had been speaking in regards to the intercourse scene, was, ‘Look, I do not need to freak you out right here. However I actually assume that Vos ought to have a penis.’ I simply thought, ‘That is wonderful. You are studying my thoughts. You are clearly the right individual for this.’ And I used to be simply thrilled to return to my producers and say, ‘She completely will need to have a penis. That is her concept.'”
Riseborough properly caught on to the truth that Cronenberg’s intention for the scene wasn’t to shock for the sake of exploitation. There is a deeper theme right here in regards to the mixing of intercourse and gender since each characters are a part of the identical physique. The second makes the viewers query the place the identification of each characters begins and ends, or in the event that they’re one and the identical. Of their battle for management, maybe they’re turning into one another and turning into the identical being. Simply because there is a penis does not imply it is, as Cronenberg succinctly places it, “penis-focused.”