Nicole Kidman Urinates On Zac Efron In ‘Paperboy’ Film

This year’s Cannes Film Festival was memorable for many reasons, but surely the most headline-worthy moment came courtesy of Paperboy, a film in which Nicole Kidman’s character urinates on Zac Efron.

The peeing-on-Efron scene, as it will surely be known to students of cinéma vérité in decades to come, doesn’t seem that gratutitous. In the film, Efron’s character is attacked by a jellyfish and needs the urine to stop the pain. Apparently other women offer to provide the service, but Kidman’s character wins the right to shower Efron with the line, “If anyone’s gonna pee on you, it’s going to be me.” See? Just a mundane, everyday scenario.

And before you ask, yes, it was the real thing.

Anyway, Paperboy director Lee Daniels has since talked about filming the scene to GQ magazine, stating:

“First of all, it was really hard to shoot. It was the third day. The first scene we shot was the sex scene with John [Cusack and Kidman]. I like to get that right out of the way. The second day was the telepathic sex scene in the prison. And the third day of shooting was the piss scene.”

Apparently Daniels started to get nerves about including the scene in the film, but was chastised by Kidman, who was determined to see her, er, golden moment make the final cut. She reportedly told Daniels:

“Lee, you made me pee on Zac Efron. If you don’t put that in the movie, you’re out of your freakin’ mind. I did it! I did it!”

As for Efron, it sounds like he was struggling not to corpse while Kidman tinkled away. Daniels revealed:

“If you could have watched Zac’s face, he’s supposed to be passed out and [while Kidman is urinating] he’s just got this smile on his face. I’m like, ‘Zac, pretend like you’re dead!’ And he’s just got this crazy smile on his face. The whole thing’s crazy.”

Yeah, might want to keep that mouth closed, Zac.