Kate Winslet’s Intense In ‘Little Children’ ( Photo Credit – YouTube )
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Kate Winslet didn’t walk away unscathed from the infamous laundry room tryst with Patrick Wilson in Little Children as her co-star revealed the steamy scene left her with more than just cinematic memories—it left with “lots of bruises.”
The Story Behind Little Children
Released in 2006, Winslet and Wilson starred in the adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s novel, playing two suburban parents entangled in a forbidden romance. Winslet’s character, Sarah Pierce, is an unfulfilled housewife who embarks on an affair with Brad Adamson, played by Wilson, after their kids’ playdates lead to something far more illicit.
Yet, while the film explores themes of infidelity and suburban malaise, one moment in particular has cemented itself in viewers’ minds, the now-iconic sex scene on top of a washing machine.
The setup? A rainy day cuts their trip to the public pool short, and after settling their children in for the night, Sarah finds herself in the basement, tossing towels into the dryer. Enter Brad and soon one thing leads to another, and eventually they find themselves wrapped up in a passionate encounter that made audiences blush.
Patrick Wilson on the Scene’s Lasting Impact
Wilson, now 51, recently reflected on the scene, revealing that even years later, women still get flustered when they see him.
With a knowing smirk, he admitted that he can usually guess exactly what they’re thinking: the laundry room moment. “It got to a point where where I could just say, ‘Are you thinking about the laundry room scene right now?'” Wilson told The Hollywood Reporter.
Little Children just knocked me on my ass. A sprawling mosaic of American suburbia and its underpinning repression, arrogance, apathy, and performative moralizing. Todd Field is genius. Kate Winslet is my queen. Very few actors have ever looked as good as Patrick Wilson here. pic.twitter.com/MHkfd6Kbv6
Actors were often left to navigate such scenes themselves long before the era of intimacy coordinators and Little Children was no exception.
Both Winslet and Wilson stripped down for authenticity, wearing only modesty coverings, with no body doubles in sight. But before diving into the deep end, Wilson’s wife, actress Dagmara Dominczyk, orchestrated a dinner with Winslet and her then-husband, director Sam Mendes.
The goal? To break the ice before things got, well, intimate on set. “Just to be like, all right, we’re about to start this movie together,” Wilson said of his wife’s motivations behind the meeting. “We’re going to be very into it. So it kind of levelled the playing field.
He added, “You could make tons of jokes, but I think we knew the drill.”
Kate Winslet’s Professionalism on Full Display
When it came time to shoot, Winslet approached it like a pro with no awkwardness and no hesitation.
“[Winslet] was so cool and gracious and just a gamer – just like, ‘Let’s go for it’. There was never one awkward or weird moment. Never one. I loved it,” Wilson continued.
Of course, throwing yourself into a washing machine comes with a price. Rumors swirled that Winslet walked away with a bruised backside from the physically demanding shoot, a claim Wilson all but confirmed. Looking back, he admitted he hasn’t filmed a love scene like that since, noting how much the industry has evolved post-#MeToo.
“I’m sure there were lots of bruises. Put it this way: I haven’t done a scene like that since post-#MeToo and intimacy coordinators,” Wilson clarified on whether Wilson sustained any war wounds. “I do feel a little bit like a dinosaur when it comes to [having appeared in] those kind of love scenes.”
Winslet, for her part, previously addressed the aftermath of their on-screen passion, revealing that while they rehearsed fully clothed to get the mechanics down, the real thing was intense.
“We just got a general shape of the scene so we knew what to expect. We did look out for each other and we laughed a hell of a lot,” she said. “It sounds ridiculous, but at a certain point you forget that you’re naked with a relative stranger…my hips and backside really hurt the next day.”
