Lena Dunham’s Sharp Stick shows the porn industry in a rare, positive light. She says that was 100% intentional.
“I think many of us were — especially people who started maybe, like, reading second-wave feminist literature early — were shaped by a kind of feminism that maybe didn’t give porn it’s due as something that can be really healing for people,” Dunham, who directed, wrote, and acted in Sharp Stick, said Saturday in a Q&A after the film’s world premiere at Sundance.
The dramedy is the Girls creator’s first return to feature filmmaking since her 2010 directorial debut Tiny Furniture.
“I think we have enough messaging in society, and probably in my 20s I contributed to it, that said, like, ‘porn is ruining sex, and it’s making it so hard for people.’ But I really wanted this to show the way that porn can liberate people in that it’s an industry that’s just as complicated as Hollywood, and as vast, and probably more prolific. And I think that it’s really important for us to recognize the very healthy role that porn can play, and the important role that porn actors play in shaping people’s identity.”
In Sharp Stick, Scott Speedman plays a porn star named Vance Leroy who figures prominently in the life of protagonist Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth). Dunham says she admired the way Speedman depicted his very out-of-the-ordinary character.
“One of the reasons that I was so excited by Scott’s performance is because he really comes out as the man in this film who sees Sarah Jo and connects to her,” Dunham said. “I loved that Scott was willing to play him with such kind of — like, Sarah Jo is very, like, lacks a certain irony and has a kind of optimism. And Scott played Vance as someone who had similar qualities of joy and abandon and almost seeing the world as new, and he really loves performing because he loves women.”
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For Speedman, playing Vance Leroy was refreshing because of the freedom he says Dunham gave him and his castmates on set.
“I never heard ‘no,’ which is a huge thing for me when you’re playing sort of an extroverted character. It’s a very safe space. And it was such a joy that you just never heard ‘no,’ you didn’t feel controlled, and that’s rare for me and it kind of created an environment where you felt like you could kind of step out and do whatever you wanted. to [and] really let it go, which is great,” Speedman said.
Jon Bernthal plays Josh, the married man whose disabled son Sarah Jo babysits for, and with whom Sarah Jo embarks on a clandestine affair in an attempt to lose her virginity. Bernthal says Dunham, who plays his character’s wife Heather, also afforded him the same freedom as an actor.
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“I think you’ll hear the same thing from everyone. It was absolutely just a beautiful, sacred kind of fertile field of creativity. I think it’s rare that you get to work for an artist that you admire so much, but then who makes work that’s so deeply, deeply personal, but then is also so generous and so just inherently and undeniably giving that she just allows you to make it personal to you, too. So I think we all feel the exact same way about how wonderful this woman is,” Bernthal said.
Main Image: Kristine Froseth and Jon Bernthal appear in Sharp Stick by Lena Dunham, an official selection of the Premieres section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
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