Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson have broken down the surprisingly technical process behind filming the infamous bed frame bite mark scenes in their new thriller Verity.
The psychological thriller, which hit theaters last Friday, stars Hathaway, 43, as Verity and Johnson, 37, as Lowen, two women whose romantic entanglements leave literal marks on a wooden headboard. The actresses revealed that the filming process was far more methodical than audiences might expect.
“It was just Annie and I on separate days, gnawing on wood,” Johnson shared in the interview.
Josh Hartnett, 48, who portrays Verity’s husband Jeremy, found himself with a lighter workload during these particular sequences. He told the same outlet that he was “able to go home” while his co-stars handled the physical demands of the bite mark creation. Hartnett would return the following day to survey what he described as “the lineup of different gnaws.”
The production approached the scenes with unexpected precision. Hathaway, the Oscar-winning star of The Princess Diaries, disclosed that she held multiple meetings with director Michael Showalter to perfect the technique. The filmmaker reportedly demonstrated “a lot of biting” during their consultations.
“We didn’t leave it to chance,” Hathaway said. “We had to figure out what shade of wood. It had to be something that could be a real bed, but was also soft enough to bite into.”
The cast settled on “soft wood” for the prop, with the primary concern being “not losing teeth” while simultaneously “making it look sexy.” The logistical challenges of balancing dental safety with on-screen sensibility became a central preoccupation for the production team.
Colleen Hoover, author of the 2018 bestselling novel that serves as the film’s source material, expressed amusement at how the brief moment has ballooned into a cultural talking point. The writer noted that she had included the detail casually in the book without anticipating its eventual significance.
“The fact that it made it into the movie and then it made it onto the [wine] tumbler. It’s just so fun,” Hoover said.
The film’s release has already proven commercially successful. Verity claimed the top spot at the North American box office on Friday, earning $15.1 million from 3,510 theaters. Industry projections anticipated a domestic weekend total of $33.6 million.
This marks Hoover’s fourth novel to receive a big-screen adaptation, following It Ends With Us and with Regretting You and Reminders of Him slated for release between 2024 and 2026.
The promotional tour for Verity has generated its own headlines beyond the bite mark revelations. At the New York premiere, Johnson was photographed reaching over to touch Hathaway’s baby bump. The gesture drew attention as Hathaway is expecting her third child with husband Adam Shulman.
The pregnancy has already altered Hathaway’s press obligations. She was forced to skip an appearance on Hot Ones, the popular Sean Evans-hosted YouTube interview series known for its progressively spicier chicken wings. Hathaway’s character appears in the show within the film itself, and the actress had initially planned to mirror that fictional moment with a real-life appearance as part of the promotional campaign.