The power of the dong: The year the penis was unleashed in Hollywood
nypost.com71-and-counting penis tab to the talking member in “Pam & Tommy,” filmmakers are no longer afraid of a phallic moment. Dropping trou is now the mark of mastery: Look no further than an authentically full-frontal Benedict Cumberbatch as an Oscar front-runner for his filthy role in “The Power of the Dog.”The proof may be in the prosthetic genitalia.
Penises of all shapes, sizes and functionality are increasingly popping up on-screen in acclaimed series and films, lately including “The White Lotus,” “And Just Like That” and “Red Rocket.”Special-effects makeup artist Jason Collins noted a surge in prosthetic penis requests — sculpting 15 different wangs in 18 months — that began when the just-renewed “Euphoria” debuted two and a half years ago.“I do think that the culture and the zeitgeist are changing with regards to what’s taboo and what’s not taboo anymore,” Collins, whose company, Autonomous FX, has worked on “Euphoria” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” told Thrillist.
After years of demanding gratuitous nudity from actresses, Hollywood is finally flipping the script with a well-timed willy — and getting rewarded for it. “Frankly, it’s about time,” Collins said.While Richard Gere’s groundbreaking pants-dropping “American Gigolo” scenes from 1980 has acted as a catalyst for male on-screen nudity for the decades since, it is a lone wolf: No pants-dropping scenes that followed caused the same cinematic stir.
Instead, prosthetic penises used in films such as “Step Brothers” and “We’re the Millers” were reserved strictly for comic relief.But lately, filmmakers in the drama category are wising up to the power of the dong.
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