awkward things

Here’s What Happens When You Accidentally Take Your Mom to See Nymphomaniac

Taking the common fear of having a sex scene appear on screen while you’re watching TV with your parents three steps further, The Skeleton Twins director Craig Johnson endured all our nightmares Wednesday afternoon when a surprise screening he thought would be the new Wes Anderson movie turned out instead to be a showing of Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Volume 1. (In fact, Vulture’s own Kyle Buchanan sat next to the happy family.) After hearing of the absolutely horrifying mix-up, Variety tracked down Mrs. Craig Johnson’s mom, a.k.a. 64-year-old Julee Johnson of Bellingham, Washington, and asked her just what she thought of the very NSFW erotic thriller. It turns out “Craig’s mom,” as the interview refers to her, didn’t mind the nudity or the gratuitous sex (“I wouldn’t call them love scenes”) but did think that “montage of penises” was a bit unnecessary. Read more of her adorable insights after the jump.

On Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) having sex with strangers in various train cars:
“No parent wants to see their daughter behaving in that manner. And yet, it was pretty intriguing to watch. That last gentlemen — I was curious to see how she was going to make this work, and boy, she sure did.”

On Uma Thurman:
“And the scene with Uma Thurman, didn’t you think that was amazing? I can’t even remember the last thing I saw Uma Thurman in.”

On the nakedness:
“I wasn’t put off by the nudity. But I thought the montage of all the different male genitalia was totally unnecessary.”

On what her husband thought:
“My husband Steve was pretty reluctant to stay for the movie. But when we got to the part where the older gentleman [Skarsgård] pulls out the Izaak Walton book and they start comparing graphic sex to fly-fishing, Steve leans over and says, ‘This looks interesting. I’ll stay awhile.’”

On recommending to her friends:
“Uh, probably not. We’re still not living down the day we recommended Trainspotting.”

Oh, and she “can hardly wait to see part two.”

Director’s Parents Accidentally See Nymphomaniac