Gina Gershon Was Warned Against Playing a Lesbian in ‘Bound’

Gina Gershon didn’t have her agents’ support when she was offered to lead the 1996 erotic crime thriller, Bound.

The now-62-year-old starred as Corky, a lesbian ex-con, alongside Jennifer Tilly as her lover.

Gershon told the “It Happened in Hollywood” podcast in the Tuesday, July 2, episode how her “small-minded” agents were unhappy with her playing an LGBTQIA+ character at the time.

“It was a great script and I could tell they were incredible directors, but my agents were like, ‘We will not let you do this movie. You are ruining your career,’” Gershon recalled. “‘We will not be able to let you represent. You will never work again.’”

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The flick was written by the Wachowskis and served as their film directorial debut. (They went on to helm The Matrix and Sense8.)

The Riverdale alum went on: “I just said, ‘Oh, well, I guess if you can’t represent me, I’ll go somewhere else.’ You know? No hard feelings.”

“I said, first of all, it’s so shortsighted to say, ‘Oh, this is a lesbian movie.’ I mean, they happen to be lesbians. They happen to be into women, but it’s really a movie about trust,” she added.

Still, Gershon was adamant on playing the role, looking back on the character’s story.

“Plus, when does the girl get to play the hero, you know?” Gershon said. “I thought, well, I could cut off my hair, cut off my nails, have no makeup. I get the girl. I get the car. I screw over the mob. It’s a win-win all around.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Gershon remembered shooting her love scene with Tilly, 65.

The Chucky star also appeared on the podcast, adding that the nude scene with her and Gershon was done “in one long continuous shot.”

“We didn’t want it to be salacious because it was an expression of the love and trust these two women had for each other,” Tilly said.

Tilly explained that the take was “very lyrical, very balletic,” with the Wachowskis telling “[us] what body part of ours was on screen.”

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Tillys also dished about how the two got ready for the scene: “Gina showed up in my trailer and she’s like, ‘I have tequila,’ and I was like, ‘Tequila, what a good idea!’”

“And chocolates,” Gershon interjected. “You always forget that I brought you chocolates, too. I was the perfect date.”

“Gina’s the best person in the world to have a sex scene because we had so much trust, and I could say to Gina, ‘Could you hold up my breast so it looks a little more juicy and perky?’” Tilly recalled.