Title: The Origin of the World
Director and writer: Brady Corbet
Starring: Lily McInerny
Principal cast: Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Selena Gomez, Amanda Seyfried
Production: Filming began September 2026.
Release: No confirmed date; 2027 is possible.
Expected rating: NC-17.
This is shaping up to be a unique project. Corbet, whose previous movie was the Oscar-winning The Brutalist, is attempting another enormous period epic, but this one is shrouded in secrecy and potentially sexually explicit! It is reportedly intended as a four-hour, X-rated film shot partly in 70mm, covering 150 years of American history.
Corbet has described it as an experimental, genre-defying film concerning American mysticism, occult traditions, migration, and the human body. Most of the action takes place in the 1970s, although the story extends from the nineteenth century into the present. The film has been shooting under the working title Salt Flats. Its reported public title, The Origin of the World, still has not been definitively established as the final release title.
Does that mean Selena Gomez will be naked?
I can find no credible report that Selena Gomez has announced she will appear fully nude in The Origin of the World. What we do know is that director Brady Corbet has explicitly described the film as X-rated, and Gomez has been reported as part of the cast. But neither Corbet nor Gomez has publicly confirmed whether her role involves nudity. There is certainly speculation, especially among her fans. But an X-rated film doesn’t necessarily mean every principal actress will appear nude.
But undoubtedly somebody in the cast will be. Lily McInerny is reportedly in the lead role. Sadie Soverall was originally being considered for the lead role, but World of Reel reported on October 29 that Lily McInerny had replaced her. McInerny has never done a nude scene.
There is a video on TikTok of Selena claiming she will be fully nude.
It is an AI-generated fake. You can tell because the creator made a major mistake. In the video she says:
Yes, I am going to star in times The Origin of the World times.
That is a synthetic copy of her voice reading this script:
Yes, I am going to star in * The Origin of the World *
The AI reads the asterisks as multiplication signs!
The creator put a lot of work into the fake, but failed to listen back carefully
One interesting wrinkle
The rumored title is identical to Gustave Courbet’s notorious 1866 painting, which depicts female genitalia in an explicit close-up. It is not known whether that is a deliberate reference.
One thing to keep in mind: in recent years, the unions banned actual sexual activity on screen by members. They could shoot overseas and non-union over there while maintaining union standards over here, from what I gather. (the whole union/non-union thing is a mess I don’t totally understand beyond foreign can equal non-union and explicit, North American means fake cgi explicit stuff if it’s a union shoot.
So there’s no way any union actress over here is gonna take part in actual explicit activity. A good example is that Saiorse Ronan/Kate Winslet movie Ammonite. Definitely union in the states. But it was an international production, and there’s no way that was simulated entirely. They got away with it because it was non-union work internationally, and didn’t break their union rules.
Here’s where it gets dicey. The production company here? US. Kaplan Morrison. Where did they shoot it? Overseas at least in part. Locations around the globe.
That leaves the question unresolved. If it’s released as US production under SAG/AFTRA rules, x-rating or not we’re getting simulated or even cgi explicit scenes. Maybe even just a lot of peen and that spread cooch shot from the painting with zero action. If it’s released as an international production? Anything goes and someone might get railed. Remember Blonde, which got the rating but showed jack and shit.
Why do I fear that the only nudity will be the ubiquitous Fassbender dick. Like four hours of Fassbender dick, with his dick actually getting separate billing.