You remember the year 2001, right? Low-rise jeans were everywhere, everyone was listening to "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys, and a movie called Original Sin basically set the tabloid world on fire. People weren't talking about the plot, which was actually based on a Cornell Woolrich novel called Waltz into Darkness. Nope. They were talking about the chemistry. Specifically, the buzz around angelina jolie naked original sin scenes and whether or not she and Antonio Banderas were actually "doing it" for the cameras.
It was a wild time for celebrity gossip.
The movie itself is this sweaty, noir-drenched period piece set in 19th-century Cuba. Banderas plays Luis Vargas, a wealthy coffee tycoon who thinks he’s playing it safe by ordering a mail-order bride. He wants a woman who is plain and dependable. Instead, he gets Julia Russell, played by a 25-year-old Angelina Jolie who was fresh off her Oscar win for Girl, Interrupted. She shows up looking like, well, Angelina Jolie. She tells him she sent a fake photo because she didn’t want to be loved for her beauty. Luis is hooked instantly. Can you blame him?
What Really Happened During the Original Sin Filming
Honestly, the "making of" story is almost more interesting than the film. Director Michael Cristofer has been pretty vocal in DVD commentaries and interviews about how those intimate scenes went down. He’s mentioned that Jolie was the one who pushed for total authenticity. She told him she wouldn't do the scenes unless she was fully naked—no modesty tape, no patches, no "acting" barriers. Banderas followed suit.
They wanted it to look real. They wanted it to feel raw.
But here’s the thing that gets lost in the "is it real?" debate: Banderas later joked that filming those scenes was about as sexy as falling off a horse. He’s gone on record saying he couldn't even touch Jolie in certain shots because she was covered in heavy body makeup to hide her many tattoos. If he moved his hands too much, the makeup would rub off, and they’d have to stop for a two-hour touch-up. Not exactly the heights of passion when there are 150 crew members shouting "Cut!" every twenty seconds.
There's a specific shot of them in a bathtub that launched a thousand rumors. People pointed to the fact that you couldn't see all four of their hands as "proof" of unsimulated sex. In reality, that’s just clever editing. Most of the truly graphic footage never even made it into the unrated cut because it was considered too explicit for an NC-17 rating at the time.
Why the "Unrated" Tag Matters
If you’ve only seen the version that played on cable TV, you haven't seen the whole movie. The theatrical cut was a standard R, but the "Unrated" DVD version added about two minutes of extra footage. Most of that was concentrated in the sex scenes. The studio knew exactly what they were doing with that marketing. They leaned into the angelina jolie naked original sin search queries before Google was even the giant it is today.
The Career Fallout You Didn't See Coming
You’d think a movie with two of the biggest stars in the world would be a slam dunk. It wasn't. Critics absolutely shredded it. The Guardian called it a "sumptuous, stolid, wholly memorable disaster." Rotten Tomatoes has it sitting at a dismal 12%.
It was a box office flop, too.
Original Sin actually kicked off a bit of a rough patch for Jolie's career. While she had Lara Croft: Tomb Raider the same year, Original Sin was followed by a string of disappointments like Life or Something Like It and Beyond Borders. It took her a few years to find her footing again as a major box office draw, which finally happened with Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
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Still, the movie has a weirdly loyal cult following. Why? Because it’s gorgeous to look at. Rodrigo Prieto, who went on to shoot Brokeback Mountain and The Wolf of Wall Street, did the cinematography. Even if you hate the dialogue (and some of it is truly clunky), every frame looks like a painting.
The Real "Sin" of the Movie
The biggest misconception is that the movie is just about the nudity. It’s actually a pretty dark story about obsession and how love can turn into a literal sickness. Luis becomes so obsessed with Julia that he’s willing to lose his fortune, his reputation, and even his life. It’s a classic "femme fatale" story, but with a twist—Julia isn’t just a villain; she’s a victim of her own past and her abusive former lover, Billy (played by Thomas Jane).
Actionable Insights for Movie Buffs
If you’re planning on revisiting this one, or seeing it for the first time, keep these things in mind to actually enjoy the experience:
- Seek out the Unrated Cut. If you’re interested in the film’s history, the theatrical version feels hollow because the editing is so choppy. The unrated version flows much better and shows the director's original vision.
- Watch the Tattoos. Now that you know Banderas was trying to avoid the body makeup, it's fun to see how the camera angles are used to hide Jolie's ink. You can occasionally spot where the makeup is a bit thicker on her back and arms.
- Appreciate the Noir Roots. Don't treat it like a modern thriller. Treat it like a 1940s pulp novel come to life. The dialogue is supposed to be "over the top." If you go in expecting realism, you’re going to have a bad time.
- Check the Soundtrack. Terence Blanchard did the music, and it’s surprisingly sophisticated for an erotic thriller. It adds a layer of class that the script sometimes lacks.
Basically, the movie is a time capsule. It’s a reminder of a period when Hollywood was trying to figure out how to do "adult" movies for the big screen without them feeling like late-night cable trash. It didn't quite succeed, but it gave us one of the most talked-about on-screen pairings in history.
Next Steps for Deep Diving:
- Compare it to Mississippi Mermaid: This is the 1969 François Truffaut film based on the same book. It stars Catherine Deneuve and is much more "artsy" and less "steamy" than the 2001 version.
- Read the Source Material: Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich. It's a fantastic piece of noir fiction that explains the characters' motivations much better than the movie does.
- Look up Rodrigo Prieto’s Filmography: Seeing how his style evolved from Original Sin to his work with Martin Scorsese is a masterclass in cinematography.
The legacy of the film isn't the box office numbers or the critical reviews. It's the fact that 25 years later, people are still searching for the truth behind those scenes. It’s proof that some on-screen chemistry is just impossible to ignore.