The ending of Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn has people buzzing as more and more audiences are finding the film upon its availability on Amazon’s Prime Video. Fennell discussed the ending in a recent interview, mentioning that Keoghan’s character, Oliver, did not originally dance through the manor nude.
Spoilers Ahead!
Talking to EW, Keoghan said there is a version of the script where Oliver is “on his way to breakfast, where he is served runny eggs by the butler,” alluding to an earlier scene in the film.
Speaking further on his decision to change the ending, Fennel said, “A walkthrough didn’t have that post-coital triumph. If we all did our job correctly, you are on Oliver’s side…You don’t care what he does, you want him to do it. You are both completely repulsed and sort of on his side. It’s that kind of dance with the devil…And so at the end, it needed to have a triumph, a post-coital win, a desecration.”
Keoghan also discussed tackling this scene, stating, “It totally felt right…It’s ownership. This is my place.” However, he also discussed his initial hesitation once the cameras started rolling, saying, “The initial thing was about me having no clothes on…But after take one, I was ready to go. I was like, ‘Let’s go again. Let’s go again.’ You kind of forget, because there’s such a comfortable environment created, and it gives you that license to go, ‘All right, this is about the story now.’”
According to Fennell, the scene was shot 11 times and was “technically perfect” by the seventh take, but it didn’t completely contain the “absolutely devilish joy” from Oliver that she desired.
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