Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson recall ’gnawing’ on wood for ‘kinky’ “Verity” oral sex scene
Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson recall ’gnawing’ on wood for ‘kinky’ “Verity” oral sex scene
Shelby StivaleSat, October 3, 2026 at 12:30 PM UTC
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Dakota Johnson and Anne Hathaway at the ‘Verity’ premiere in New York CityCredit: Taylor Hill/FilmMagicJosh Hartnett, meanwhile, tells EW he “got to go home.”Key Points -
Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson break down how they brought the Verity bed frame bite marks to life in the movie.
Josh Hartnett tells Entertainment Weekly that he was “able to go home” while they were “gnawing” on wood.
“It’s so kinky,” director Michael Showalter says.
Sorry, Verity fans, bringing the iconic bite mark scene to life wasn’t sexy for Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson.
Josh Hartnett tells Entertainment Weekly that he was “able to go home” while his costars took “some time” to get the bed frame bite marks — which occurred during some pretty steamy sex scenes — just right.
“It was just Annie and I on separate days, gnawing on wood,” Johnson recalls. Hartnett would come to set the next day and look at “the lineup of different gnaws.”
The initial bite marks in both Colleen Hoover’s book and the film adaptation, which hit theaters on Friday, were made by Verity (Hathaway) during oral sex with her husband, Jeremy (Hartnett). When Lowen (Johnson) moves into their home and takes over an incapacitated Verity’s work, she develops a romantic relationship with Verity. In order to stake her claim, Lowen makes her own bite marks in the headboard.
Dakota Johnson as Lowen in ‘Verity’Credit: Alisha Wetherill
Per Hathaway, it was actually quite technical to make that “very, very” important detail come to life.
“We didn’t leave it to chance,” Hathaway says, explaining that she and director Michael Showalter had “so many meetings” about the biting. He also “demonstrated a lot of bites for me,” she recalls.
“We had to figure out what shade of wood. It had to be something that could be a real bed, but was also soft enough to bite into,” Hathaway adds. “When you read it, you’re reading so quickly, you’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.’ But then when it comes time to act it, you’re like, ‘You’re gonna bite a wooden headboard?’ We had to really figure it out.”
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Johnson’s biggest concern was “how to make it sexy and not lose teeth,” honestly. Showalter notes that they used “soft wood” for this purpose. “Hathaway says, “We had to introduce some sensuality.”
Author Hoover also weighs in on the bite marks of it all, explaining how something she wrote in passing became one of the most memorable moments in the book. (Movie theaters are also selling Verity memorabilia that features bite marks to celebrate the film’s release.)
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“When I wrote that, I had no idea it would become a thing,” the author reveals. “It was just a sentence. The fact that it made it into the movie and then it made it onto the [wine] tumbler. It’s just so fun.”
Showalter adds, “It’s so kinky.”
Verity is out now.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
