Love it or loathe it, there's no denying that Saltburn has become the most talked about film of recent months. If you haven't seen it, you will have heard about it, and if you haven't heard of it - where on earth have you been?
* CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SALTBURN *
And, amongst all the sex, obsession and privilege, there's one moment that the internet just can’t get over – that infamous bathtub scene. Let’s recap (caution, spoilers ahead).
What happens in the Saltburn bathtub scene?
If you've seen the commotion around the infamous Barry Keoghan scene and find yourself wondering, 'what is the bathtub scene in Saltburn?', we're here to help.
Around forty five minutes into the film, Felix, a handsome aristocrat played by heartthrob Jacob Elordi, has just finished masturbating while taking a steamy bath. Unbeknown to Felix, his new friend Oliver, played by Barry Keoghan, is watching him through the open door. After Felix has left the bath, Oliver climbs into the bath and slurps up the murky dregs of the bathwater, even sucking on the plug hole to get every last bit of Felix's bodily fluids.
The Jacob Elordi's bathwater candle
It wasn't long before the toe-curling scene broke the internet. The hashtag #Saltburnbathscene has 11 million views on TikTok, while ‘saltburn bathtub scene timestamp’ is a breakout search term on Google. The scene has been made into countless memes and even a scented candlecalled ‘Jacob Elordi’s Bathwater.' The product description reads ‘There’s nothing quite like the smell of a quality candle, particularly when that smell is inspired by Jacob Elordi and what we imagine His Highness to smell like.’
The slurping noise...
But there’s a whole host of secrets that went into giving this scene its shock-factor. First, let’s address those bathtub noises noise. While the actual slurp came from Barry Keoghan himself, the squelchy, gurgle sound was actually generated by an octopus.
Nina Hartstone, the film’s supervising sound editor, told Variety ‘As so much of it is about texture, this is where things like the octopus came in.’ She continued ‘It was just one of the many unique ideas the Foley team came up with when they were experimenting with props to create sounds with. The octopus was raw, and it’s something that’s got very many textures to play with, and a cavity in its head. We didn’t shy away from experimenting with creating as many sticky sounds as we could using oil and the octopus. You have to do an awful lot of recording to find the absolute right sounds.’
What is the Saltburn bathtub scene timestamp?
Fans are searching for the Saltburn bathtub scene timestamp so they can relive the disturbing moment without watching the whole film. For real. It's trending on google searches. It's even got its own template on TikTok now.
Ok, so fine. The timestamp is 49:30 if you want to watch that bathtub scene again, and again and again. You do you.
How to watch the Saltburn bathtub scene in full
If the timestamp isn't a good enough shortcut for you, you can watch clips of the iconic (and disturbing) scene on YouTube or TikTok too. It isn't very difficult to find. And for the full scene (and film), you'll need an Amazon Prime account but you can watch it to your heart's content here.
What does Emerald Fennell say about the bathtub scene?
While the scene will have caused a lot of gasps in the cinema (and god forbid, if you watched it at home with your parents), Saltburn director Emerald Fennell also wanted it to be a sexy moment. 'To me the bathtub is just an incredibly erotic scene,' she told Time. 'It is all the things that something stirring should be, which is funny and intimate and shocking and revolting and unbelievably sexy.'
In another interview, Fennell also revealed that the scene is crucial to establishing Oliver as an 'unreliable narrator. 'It was a boy saying, "I wasn't in love with him," and that same boy licking the bottom of a bathtub,' she told Entertainment Weekly. 'So that was the very centre of the film for me, this kind of unreliable narrator, somebody who was clearly in the grips of extreme desire and who hasn't yet come to terms with it or who has had to find another way of coming to terms with it or explain it.'
According to Fennell, in order to film the scene, the bathtub had to be cut in half so that the camera, and the viewers, could be in the tub with Oliver. She explained that the bath was placed in the middle of the bathroom because it's 'designed to be watched,' telling Time 'these houses are built for voyeurism because the staff need to be able to see but not be seen [...] There's such erotic tension to that but also kind of horror because you're being seen doing the wrong thing.'
What does Barry Keoghan say about the bathtub scene?
Keoghan is no stranger to a shocking scene in the film - his escapades at Saltburn include having sex with a grave and dancing naked to Murder On The Dancefloor by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. He also addressed the bathtub scene in an interview with The Ringer. ‘The moment where he rubs his face along the plughole and wants to be in it, it’s sort of like, "I want to feel it, I want it to be part of me, I want it to change me,"' he said. 'It’s a total obsession. He’s confused and lost. I don’t think he knows what he’s actually chasing.'
And as for what Jacob's thinks about a candle named after his dirty bathwater? Watch this space.