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Diablo Cody didn’t do the same-sex kiss in “Jennifer’s Body” for publicity

In an exclusive interview with The Frisky today, writer Diablo Cody talks about her upcoming horror film, Jennifer’s Body, feminism, and the overly-hyped onscreen kiss between the film’s stars Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried.

First, let’s watch the clip of aforementioned kiss:

Of the kiss, Cody told The Frisky that she doesn’t consider the moment gratuitous and never meant for it to be used as publicity for the film:

All right, if the two protagonists of the film were a guy and a girl and in a particularly tense moment, they shared a kiss, no one would say it was gratuitous. But the fact that they’re women means it’s some kind of stunt. It was intended to be something profound and meaningful to me and to Karyn [Kusama, the director].

Obviously we knew people were going to totally sensationalize it. They’re beautiful girls, the scene is hot — I’m not afraid to say that. There is a sexual energy between the girls which is kind of authentic, because I know when I was a teen-aged girl, the friendships that I had with other girls were almost romantic, they were so intense. I wanted to sleep at my friend’s house every night, I wanted to wear her clothes, we would talk on the phone until our ears ached. I wanted to capture that heightened feeling you get as an adolescent that you don’t really feel as a grownup. (laughs) You like you’re friends when you’re a grownup but you don’t need to sleep in the same bed with them and talk to them on the phone until 5 a.m. every night.

While Cody makes a good point that many of us will likely identify with (I mean, who here doesn’t still want to sleep in their friends’ beds?), I found something else she said to be somewhat contradictory.

On discussing what a big role her feminism plays in her work, she told the interviewer:

I think representation is obviously the first step to equality, so if women aren’t being represented in a diverse way in movies, they’re going to remain marginalized.

Yet, this highly-publicized “lesbian” kiss in her film isn’t exactly representing women in a diverse way. Even if her rationale behind the scene makes perfect sense, and is much better than some dude-fest film with drunk sorority girls making out just to get male attention, most people in the theaters or reading the articles promoting the film don’t know that. To them, it’s all the same: Two hot girls kiss in a movie, people talk, go see movie.

But, then again, since the film stars Megan Fox, people would talk and go (or not go) see the film, anyway, as she does a fine job on her own stirring up controversy and attention.

Cody says of Fox:

Even having worked with her to this extent, I don’t know her very well because she’s very private and mysterious. But I’ve [heard] these things come out of her mouth. I’ve been present for some of these interviews and she is totally fearless. What she is saying is completely genuine. It is not a front. I think people think she’s trying to create some kind of image for herself that she’s not, but she’s a really, truly eccentric person.

If you’re going to see Jennifer’s Body, what’s your reason? Is it for the kiss? Is it for feminism? Or is it for Megan Fox?

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