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What's The First Movie You Saw That Awakened Your Sexuality?

By Brian Richards | Social Media | June 26, 2024 |

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Header Image Source: Warner Bros.

Near the end of Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Bride has arrived in Mexico and tracks down retired pimp Esteban Vihaio, who raised Bill as a little boy, and who knows exactly where Bill can be located. Before he reveals to her where she can find him, Esteban tells The Bride an anecdote of when he took young Bill to the movies to see The Postman Always Rings Twice. According to Esteban, every time Lana Turner appeared onscreen, Bill was, to quote Fabrizio from The Godfather, hit by the thunderbolt, enough that “…he began compulsively to suck his thumb to an obscene amount.” From that moment on, Bill was infatuated with blondes, as evidenced by the two women he was romantically involved with (The Bride and Elle Driver), and that’s how it remained until Bill learned the hard way that Pai Mei taught The Bride how to do the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique.

Many of us who watch a lot of movies and television shows can probably remember what and who we first saw onscreen that suddenly made us think R-rated thoughts, and bite our fists like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. The scenes, characters, and actors that made us begin to strongly consider who we were attracted to, who we wanted, and in some cases, made us know without a shadow of a doubt just who and what (in the words of Rev. Solomon Missouri) makes our sin engines rumble.

For me, it was seeing the late Kirstie Alley in a sci-fi film called Runaway, which also starred Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons. (If anything, I’m quite certain that my reaction to seeing her for the first time was very similar to how Selleck’s character responds upon seeing her, in which his jaw practically hits the floor.) Then there was Demi Moore in a film called Wisdom opposite Emilio Estevez, and Grace Jones as May Day in A View to a Kill. Which probably explains why raspy-voiced brunettes and women (particularly tall women) who could easily kick my ass without breaking a sweat have always made me weak in the knees like SWV.

Earlier this month, comic book writer Gail Simone (who is well-known for her work on Batgirl, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman, and Secret Six) took a break from trolling Twitter followers with questions like “Did Val Kilmer ever do any comedies? I feel like he would have been good in a comedy,” so she could pose this query:

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If you’re reading this, then you already know that Gail’s followers had a lot of responses to her tweet. And here they are…

Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Alien, specifically the moment when she stripped down to her tank top and underwear after escaping from the Nostromo.

Yul Brynner as Rameses II in The Ten Commandments, whose good looks and swagger made it impossible to take your eyes off of him, even when he is spouting so much f-ckboy rhetoric to Nefretiri (Anne Baxter).

Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The fact that she was voiced by Kathleen Turner in Body Heat mode certainly didn’t hurt. (Her singing voice, however, is provided by Amy Irving.)

Alice Krige as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact, who somehow made Data (and a lot of viewers) briefly forget that she was leading a hostile takeover to destroy all of civilization by taking over their bodies and erasing the humanity from them.

Diane Lane in Streets of Fire. Not only is she an absolute smokeshow in this film, but she’s an absolute smokeshow whose character, Ellen Aim, sings rock-and-roll on stage for a living, which just makes her even hotter.

Corporal Dwayne Hicks (Michael Biehn) in Aliens. Easy on the eyes, yes. What made him even hotter, besides the fact that he’s incredibly good at his job, is how he treats Ripley from the moment they cross paths. The way he respects her knowledge, and pays close attention when she describes her experience from the first film. How he smiles at Ripley’s skillful operation of the Power Loader, followed by him giving her his locator watch in case anything happens to her, and then getting up close and personal to teach her how to use his pulse rifle.

Tim Curry as the Lord of Darkness in Legend. Look, I’ve seen people on this website who were (and probably still are) willing to let Venom and Pennywise the Clown hit it like the fist of an angry god, so don’t look too shocked or be too offended that there are some monsterf-ckers out here who would gladly have their way with this character in every room of their house.

Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz in The Mummy. They’re not the only actors and characters in that film who have caused many a sexual awakening since this film hit theaters in 1999 (hellooooo, Oded Fehr!), but these two are usually at the top of the list.

Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer as Batman and Catwoman in Batman Returns. We don’t have nearly enough comic book movies with this much sex appeal and weirdness, and that needs to change ASAP. (The fact that DC Comics refuses to let Batman go down on Catwoman doesn’t help.)

The volleyball scene in Top Gun. A bunch of hot, shirtless, sweaty military men playing volleyball against each other in slow motion, all while the king of yacht rock himself, Kenny Loggins, sings “Playing with the Boys” on the soundtrack. Need I say more?

Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon in Bound. Even before they’re admiring each other’s tattoos, and then hungrily making their way to the nearest bed, the two of them damn near set the screen on fire just from how they gaze at each other on the elevator in the opening scene.

There’s a reason why this GIF of Jennifer Connelly riding a rocking horse in Career Opportunities remains a popular one on the Internet, and why it’s usually the first thing that comes to mind when people think of Jennifer Connelly.

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Salma Hayek as Santanico Pandemonium in From Dusk Till Dawn, dancing seductively on stage while wearing a very large snake on her body. A bold and memorable move that would later be replicated by Britney Spears in her performance of “Slave 4 U” at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.

Last but not least: Robin Hood and Maid Marian from Disney’s Robin Hood. I was not aware until I joined Twitter that there are a lot of people (several of whom are mutuals, and they know who they are) who find Robin Hood in fox form to be ridiculously hot, and that they find him more desirable than most other human actors they see in movies and on television.

A few other actors and scenes that caused sexual awakenings: Kelly LeBrock in Weird Science (specifically her introductory scene where she meets Gary and Wyatt and asks, “What would you little maniacs like to do first?”); Willem Dafoe in To Live and Die in L.A.; Angelina Jolie in Gia; Helen Mirren in Excalibur; Richard Gere wearing only a towel and pulling Debra Winger onto his lap in An Officer and a Gentleman; Richard Gere’s butt in American Gigolo; Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; Annie Potts attempting to seduce Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters II; Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride, especially as he responds to all of Princess Buttercup’s demands with “As you wish;” Jennifer Connelly and the late David Bowie in Labyrinth; the first swordfight between Zorro (Antonio Banderas) and Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in The Mask of Zorro; Sally Field in Smokey and the Bandit (f-ck you, Family Guy); Billy Dee Williams in Lady Sings the Blues; Russell Wong in The Joy Luck Club; Kelly McGillis in Top Gun; Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly, a.k.a. the Pink Ranger, from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; Jane Fonda as Barbarella; Miranda Otto as Éowyn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and her “I am not a man” moment; Samantha Mathis in Pump Up the Volume; and Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors (you can judge for yourself if that response is just as joke, or if the person who tweeted that was being serious…for reasons).

Before you even say it: Yes, I’m fully aware that there isn’t a lot of diversity in most of these responses. Trust me, you’re not the only one(s) who took notice.

A few people on Twitter responded with actors and characters from television instead of movies, and those included Lucy Lawless as Xena, Warrior Princess; Yvonne Craig as Batgirl; Eartha Kitt and Julie Newmar as Catwoman; Cheetara from the original version of Thundercats; Goliath from Gargoyles; and every scene of Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully on The X-Files.

Some people reading these choices may be nodding their heads in agreement, and suddenly find themselves in need to spritz themselves with cold water, Blanche Devereaux-style. Others may simply shrug and feel nothing, either because of their asexuality, or because none of these actors or scenes are their particular brand of whiskey. But all of this is still a nice change of pace from the increasingly tired Twitter discourse of people complaining yet again about unnecessary sex scenes, which is a topic guaranteed to rear its head on the app at least twice a year, so let us enjoy the peace while it lasts.