Usher's steamy 'Hands of Stone' sex scene: 5 hot points
Forget the film title, Hands of Stone. Usher Raymond shows buns of steel as boxer Sugar Ray Leonard during a sultry sex scene in the drama.
Usher’s undulating, bare-backside performance depicting Leonard's tryst with wife Juanita (Jurnee Smollett-Bell ) fills the screen. It's sure to raise the heat in theaters during this opening weekend (and it's shown explicitly in the NSFW red-band trailer below).
The Nice & Slow singer, 37, didn't mind baring far more than his soul for the camera.
“My mother always told me as a kid I was an exhibitionist. So it made it easy,” Usher tells USA TODAY
Here’s five key points about the sizzling scene.
1. Usher wanted it.
Far from shy, Usher was ready for his nude close-up in his first time onscreen.
Usher says he even suggested it to director Jonathan Jakubowicz after seeing Edgar Ramirez , as Leonard's boxing foe Roberto Duran , shoot a similar scene with Ana de Armas (as Duran’s wife, Felicidad).
“Originally Ana and Edgar were the only two to have a sex scene. But I mentioned it to Jonathan as a consideration and he said that could actually work,” Usher says.
“Usher was thrilled,” Jakubowicz adds.
2. The tender, yet hot, scene helps the movie.
The love scene makes dramatic sense because boxers were prohibited from having sex before bouts, especially Leonard's much-hyped 1980 rematch with Duran, which serves as the climax of Hands of Stone.
But Leonard was confident enough before the fight to follow through with the act, despite training lore.
“He broke the Golden Rule," says Usher. "The week of, if not the night before, he lays with his wife."
Further, Jakubowicz knows the scene will get people's bums into theater seats.
“It never hurts to have a sex scene with Usher looking like that. It’s phenomenal. People will love it, and Usher’s fans will go nuts," says Jakubowicz.
3. It was even hotter on the set.
Usher worked hard to get into shape as Leonard. The results are clear in the ring and the bedroom.
Jakubowicz says one married crew couple working on the Panama set had a hot-blooded jealousy flare-up during shooting: "So there was a little bit of drama there."
Jakubowicz also noticed a lot of crew members glued to the set monitor during filming.
"Usually the director is by himself in the monitor," says Jakubowicz. "But this time, for some reason, all the girls were next to the monitor on set."
One crew member even felt compelled to tell Smollett-Bell to get more physical with Usher. "She literally went to (Smollett-Bell) and was like, 'I don’t know if you realize, but what we’re seeing on camera is a (butt) that you need to freaking grab.' It was hysterical. But he does have an incredible physique."
4. Usher could go far workin' it.
Jakubowicz says Usher could have a future beyond Grammy-winning albums and acting.
"In the middle of this, Usher tells me, 'People think all my life I wanted to be a pop star or actor. But I truly, truly just wanted to be a porn star,' " Jakubowicz recalls. "And I’m laughing. But I really couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. He did say this was his dream come true."
We checked. Usher was totally joking about the career change.
Ladies you are welcome
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