Adrian Lyne Is Making Cinema Horny Again With Deep Water

Adrian Lyne knows how to titillate. The English filmmaker has had American audiences in the palm of his hands since Jennifer Beals danced like no one was watching in 1983’s Flashdance. He’s given us the seminal affair cautionary tale in Fatal Attraction, and the shorthand for “X-rated” in 9 ½ Weeks. It should come as no surprise that Deep Water, Lyne’s first new film in 20 years, would be something of an event. If anyone can restore the horny energy at a time when erotic thrillers are all but extinct, it’s this guy—especially when he’s returning with a film that sparked one of Hollywood’s most recent tabloid obsessions.

Based on a 1957 novel with a script co-written by Euphoria provocateur Sam Levinson, Deep Water stars Ben Affleck as the gloriously named Vic Van Allen, a rich early retiree who doesn’t seem to mind that his wife Melinda, played by Ana de Armas, routinely cavorts with men half his age—sometimes literally right in front of him. Or does he? Reactions to the trailer immediately deemed it as a Cuck Thriller and spiritual sequel to Gone Girl—that other movie where Ben Affleck’s disdain for his wife is palpable enough for a community to believe it’s driven him to murder. The end result is something more complex, a tale that pits both Van Allens as equally complicit in the drama and mayhem that surrounds them. The film might not reach the same cultural heights as Flashdance or Fatal Attraction, but it’s all deeply weird and winkingly funny enough to sustain.

Ahead of Deep Water’s release, Lyne talked to GQ about returning to the silver screen, whether there’s room for eroticism in the mainstream anymore and the moment he saw sparks between Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas.