In Defence of ‘The Bathtub Scene’: A ‘Saltburn’ Debrief

If you’ve spent even a millisecond on the internet lately, you’ve witnessed intense conversation about “the bathtub scene” from Saltburn, Emerald Fennell’s twisty, queer, Shakespearean thriller starring Jacob Elordi, Barry Keoghan and Rosamund Pike.

There’s been whispering, giggling, screaming, and cringing — especially from Junkee staffers Talecia Vescio, Lia Kim, and Ky Stewart. Here is their debrief (with spoilers, so watch out): 

What Happens In Saltburn?

Lia Kim: It was a very awkward experience for me to watch a movie like Saltburn by myself with no one help me understand what the fuck was going on. I was sitting there. I had no one to look at. It was so sad.

Talecia Vescio: But also, honestly, maybe that was a good thing. I just recommended that my sister go and see the movie and I was like, I can go with you, but you can’t look me in the eye. Literally at all. 

Ky Stewart: Talecia and I saw it together. We went to a media screening, which was in this fancy Universal theatrette. When the movie ended, we sat there in silence for a while, mouths open. What did we just watch? I was in a daze.

TV: You didn’t say a single word. I was talking your fucking ear off trying to make sense of what we had just seen. We had to debrief at a sushi place outside the theatrette while it was pissing down on George Street.

KS: I feel like I had this emotional hangover. I went into the movie not knowing what it was about. It was very unsettling piecing it together in real time.

TV: I can kind of attribute the emotional hangover to the fact that it was just textbook escapism. We’ve got Barry Keoghan dick-swinging to Murder On The Dancefloor as our closer.

LK: Did you like that ending?

TV: Fucking loved it. 

KS: Of course. I loved it.

LK: It was so indulgent.

TV: It was so indulgent. It was held for ages. I thought it was going to be super artful every time Barry turns around, that there’d be something to cover it. But then we got the full frontal. Then we got the full swing.

KS: I think my emotional hangover came from constantly feeling like something’s not right — that tension builds the whole way and never actually gets released. Then there are moments where you think it’s been released, but it just builds again because something else is happening.

TV: Even at the very end, there’s still no release. There’s no proper resolution.

LK: Yeah, because you’re like, well, that can’t be it, right? That can’t be what he wants to do.

Why The Saltburn Trailer Felt Like A Red Herring.

KS: I thought Jacob Elordi’s character, Felix, was going to be a dick. Looking at this tall, strong, rich, privileged boy with an English accent, you just think he’s an asshole from a private school.

LK: I felt the exact same, especially in that bar tab moment. I was so anxious for Ollie but then Felix comes over and he’s like, ‘You dropped this’. I was like, oh my God, I love him.

TV: I think that may have solidified it for me too, because I thought that the bike scene was bullshit. I was like, oh, he’s going to just, one, abandon him. Two, never talk to him again and three, kill him. Because I thought he was fucking sinister from the start.

KS: Oh, I still thought he was bad. Even the post-wallet/money/bar scene. I was like, no, I still don’t trust you. I think that’s also why I was a bit unsettled, because he’s actually a nice guy. He gets upset at Ollie when they come back to Saltburn and he’s so hurt. It’s not anger, he’s actually upset because he genuinely feels betrayed. And that is interesting. What a perfect actor for that role. 

LK: That’s what Emerald Fennell did really well with Promising Young Woman. She purposely casts these guys that are like nice boys, kind boys, very, very much on purpose.

KS: I watched an interview with Emerald where she was talking about the scene where Jacob Elordi goes ‘dead relly, dead relly, daddy’s Teddy’. And she said she knew he was perfect because everyone else was playing this very posh and stiff and a little bit sinister. But with Jacob, she said, ‘It’s really hard to play someone that’s actually just nice, who comes from money, but is just nice.’

TV: She mentions that scene specifically because he’s surrounded by opulence and picking out the things that mattered to him, just regular things that you could have in any kind of house. 

LK: Playing likeable privilege is hard. And he does it so well. People have described Saltburn as an ‘eat the rich’, vampire psychological thriller, but you don’t hate the characters. You’re just unsettled by them.

KS: And Rosamund Pike is exquisite. 

TV: Fucking steals it. 

KS: So, Rosamund Pike plays this oblivious, rich housewife with an ‘I’ve explored the world. I’ve gone to Marrakech vibe. 

TV: It was like a humanity switch. And honestly, I’m telling on myself here, relatable.

KS: That dinner around the table is a masterclass in acting for all of them, but especially for Rosamund because you just see so much in her face in one shot. I honestly think she’ll get an Oscar for supporting actress. It all felt very much like theatre.

TV: At the dinner party scene — not trying to spoil anything here — when everything’s happening outside and they close the curtain in the dining room, that’s a metaphor. We, the audience, aren’t allowed to see it because it’s offscreen. But we know it’s there and it’s not for us.

LK: I’d be really curious how people who come from wealth watch the movie, because the world felt very foreign to me — what having that kind of money does to your relationships, etc. Like, when Felix’s sister constantly keeps saying, ‘that’s your new play thing’. I felt so bad for the guy — he can’t even have friends. 

TV: The movie plays with your expectations — and that started with the trailer. I watched it after I saw the movie and thought, ‘This is nothing like the movie.’ It gives nothing away, and leads you down a rabbit hole. It’s like the whole trailer is a red herring, in a way.

LK: Bring back trailers like that.

TV: Usually trailers give you three hours of a movie in 90 seconds. They spoon-feed you the best lines and then you know that the rest of the movie is filler. I used to love watching trailers.

LK: I used to obsessively watch trailers because it was a tiny little taste of what the movie would be. And then at some point, they just became the entire movie. It was spoiling everything.

What Is “The Bath Scene” In Saltburn?

KS: I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to talk about the bath scene.

TV: One of the top three most mortifying moments of my life was watching that scene with you. 

KS: Oh, I had a good time with you. 

TV: Okay, I wasn’t mortified.

KS: Did you know what was going to happen?

TV: As soon as they showed the bath.

LK: I’m very passive when I watch movies. I don’t really think about what’s going to happen next. So the moment his nose entered the frame above, I was like there’s no way.

KS: Okay, listen. The first scene where we see Felix doing his business in the bathtub, Ollie is watching. So when Ollie is walking towards the bathtub — the minute, the second, the millisecond he starts walking — I was like, I know exactly what he’s doing. I can understand it. Disclaimer: I have never done this, but I understand the queer, forbidden longing. It feels like a rush. Like in Call Me By Your Name, there’s a moment where Elio puts Oliver’s bathers on his head just to smell him. And I get it. Never done it. But I get it.

TV: We’ve had a million scenes from films directed by men —

LK: Of heterosexual filth. I shouldn’t say that.

TV: Of men sniffing women’s underpants, as a concept of desire.

KS: And Saltburn is from a female lens. You get the obsession that he has with Felix. It felt like I was watching a really private moment of someone trying to deal with their obsession. It was intense.

TV: But it was purposeful. Emerald Fennell wants to linger on these jaw-dropping moments. They’re all on the screen for a super uncomfortable length of time. 

KS: So much happened in that bathtub — it was very symbolic. Like when you look into the water, you reflect, you see yourself. But Ollie takes a bath there to take ownership. And Felix’s sister is there because she wants to feel him again. It’s the only part of Felix she and Ollie can share. And it’s shallow because a bath is shallow.

TV: And also, on the Shakespeare situation and bathing, Lady MacBeth could never get clean.

KS: Out, damned spot! Sorry. We’re just nerds. 

LK: I really like the comparison you made between men sniffing underwear versus this very intimate moment. It wasn’t gross in any way.

TV: No, it wasn’t. I’m not going to yuck anyone’s yum. For sure. But I do think that the reason it was so jaw dropping was because it went for so long. 

LK: And the slurping. 

TV: Yeah, the slurping. I hear it in my dreams. 

KS: And he was so close to that drain. And that drains very old. 

LK: Barry should get an Oscar for that.

KS: He risked it all.

TV: Lia, you said that you knew what was going to happen as the nose entered the scene. And for those who haven’t seen it, it’s a super, super up close shot. And from the top of the screen, Ollie descends on the drain. It’s incredible. And so he’s going in from the side, the nose enters the shot and then you are in it. You are in the drain as he’s consuming. 

KS: Guzzling.

LK: I didn’t even think that he would do it until he was doing it, until he was there.

KS: Until that tongue was on that drain.

TV: The funeral scene was like that for me too. Sick and twisted. After everyone leaves, we pull back to see Ollie running along the bottom of the screen. And you’re wondering what’s about to happen? It’s raining. It’s just Ollie. And then all of a sudden he’s getting down there and he puts his dick in the dirt. He fucks the grave. Just sobbing in the rain, full dick in the dirt.

LK: When did you realise that was going to happen?

KS: Oh, immediately. As soon as everyone walked off, I was like, ‘he’s going to fuck the grave’. Maybe this is something that’s challenging to grapple with. Maybe I just understood him. And maybe I felt or have felt at some point in time that intensity. I never acted upon any of those impulses, obviously. But I understand there was a level of overwhelming feeling. Just to be clear, I would never fuck a grave.

TV: You were brought on his intense, lustful journey. Barry did a great job. 

What happened on the Saltburn movie press tour?

LK: Speaking of Barry, his performance on the press circuit for Saltburn alongside Jacob… whether it’s a performance or not… give him an Oscar.

KS: It gives me the vibe of Mamma Mia! They’re all just drunk on set. And you can feel that.

TV: Yes, I love when a cast is friendly and having fun! Apparently, for the Midsummer Night’s Dream scene, they just threw a party for three days and shot their key scenes while it was going on in the background. How cool is that? 

TV: I’m not seeing ego. I’m not seeing one person standing away from the rest of the cast or anything like that. Even with High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, the whole cast was a cohort. And then Olivia Rodrigo was quite separate.

LK: Talecia has famously pointed out the chemistry between Barry and Jacob on the Saltburn press tour.  That’s been huge in K-pop for a long time — people zeroing in on specific interactions between members of each group.

TV: If you just watch how people behave with each other, with their body language and all these little things, it’s just beautiful. 

LK: Fans get a lot of crap for being so obsessed, but it’s really wholesome.

TV: It’s especially tough if you’re a woman or a girl. I grew up on the internet, as a fan of a lot of different things. And there’s always been a real heavy hatred for teenage girl love. People will do anything to stop it in its tracks — as if it doesn’t have value. 

LK: I hate it when I don’t have a franchise to obsess over. It invigorates me. Focussing on a game or movie or book makes me so excited about life. I love fan-made art. And I feel so happy for fans that have TikTok as a release for it. That hasn’t always been available. 

TV: Fans of the 2010s were in the fucking trenches with Pixart.

KS: Everyone is a fan of something and I think fandoms get a bad rap for being largely female, largely queer. As if it’s not masculine to pour over something. But I can tell you, I have seen that many fucking sports people freak over fantasy football. That’s Wattpad for men.

LK: They go to their little concerts. 

TV: And let them, you know what I mean? Let them. But let us.

LK: They wear merch with their crushes’ names on them.

TV: Yeah, they wear their biases on their shirts. 

LK: Let’s girlify things. Dismantle the patriarchy. Girly is not offensive. And the fact that it’s been an insult for a long time says a lot.

TV: Part of what I love about the Saltburn cast is that both Barry and Jacob are so comfortable in their own sexualities.

KS: In an interview, Jacob called himself a tall girl, which is so funny to me. People wouldn’t normally do that because they’d be so concerned.

TV: So we’re clearly speaking in quite cis-het terms here, but I feel like seeing the traditional concept of masculinity softened like this on and off screen is just beautiful to see. It opens doors.

KS: The hardening of masculinity has always been around, but right now there’s a war on that binary, so it’s hardening up in response. 

TV: Within any period, any culture, the lines between masculine and feminine have always been blurred. Shakespearean stuff is full of that — ambiguous and androgynous. Stories like that — stories like Saltburn — can be anything.

Saltburn is in cinemas now.

Editor’s note: This conversation has been edited for clarity.