Why would a mainstream actress vie for the role of a woman known primarily for the titular skill in “Deep Throat”?
Linda Lovelace, who starred in that 1972 porn movie, became a household name and an icon of sexual liberation. But her raunchy fame hid the awful secret that she was being relentlessly abused by her husband, Chuck Traynor, who had forced her to make the movie — a story she eventually told in the ’80s with two autobiographies.
Amanda Seyfried — the fresh-faced ingenue of “Les Misérables” and “Mamma Mia!” — portrays the actress in Friday’s “Lovelace.” A second, now-defunct project saw Lindsay Lohan cast in the role, only to be replaced by Malin Akerman (“Rock of Ages”).
And Katrina Lenk, a Broadway actress appearing in “Once,” made a splash playing the troubled woman in the rock opera “Lovelace: A Rock Musical” in 2008. (Tina Yothers of “Family Ties” workshopped the role.)
What drew these women to such a dark tale?
“The first thing you think about is that it could have ruined my career,” Seyfried said in a recent interview. “At the same time, I was like, ‘This is my chance to show them, to show the industry.’ ”
After all, there was so much more to Lovelace — born Linda Boreman — than her brief turn as a porn star, though that’s what she is still primarily known for. When “Deep Throat” came out, it was a low-grade hit — and became a free-speech cause célèbre after New York’s mayor, John Lindsay, attempted and failed to have it banned from showing in the city.
But the real meat of the story was behind the scenes: Traynor, a chronic abuser, had repeatedly forced Linda — often at gunpoint — to have sex for money, and then to perform sexual acts on camera. It’s the most horrifying of life stories — and catnip to actors hungering to demonstrate dramatic range.
“For an actress to play somebody who’s raped and abused, but who also has the dichotomy of having to come off sexy, to have this moment where she begins to like the fame and the parties — those kinds of roles are what we all would like to have,” says Debi Mazar, who plays Dolly Sharp, another “Deep Throat” actress, in “Lovelace.”
She watched as the bubbly Seyfried morphed into Linda, bullied and beaten by her husband (portrayed in the movie by Peter Sarsgaard), and rejected by her conservative parents while still trying to claim a blithe, outward happiness about her newfound porn fame.
“She’s such a vivacious actress,” says Mazar of Seyfried. “I think of her as romping through Capri with Meryl Streep [in ‘Mamma Mia!’]. To prepare for the role, she had to really physically transform into this vulnerable, freckled, brown-eyed girl with a New York accent.”
Jeffery Bowman, the creator of the “Lovelace” rock opera, says Lovelace’s devastating story blindsided him when he first discovered it.
“She was so desperate to be loved,” Bowman says. “She was this woman who was physically and mentally abused by her husband. And all of a sudden she’s thrust into the spotlight.”
Lux Alptraum, editor of the adult-movie site Fleshbot, says Lovelace’s story was bound to be attractive to actors. “Her whole back story is kind of classic, tragic ingenue,” she says. “It’s amped up by the fact that it’s titillating — all those dirty things she did!”
Also, Alptraum adds, pornography has lost much of its stigma: “It’s not such a taboo topic anymore. Culturally, we’re more open about acknowledging porn. I mean, Kim Kardashian launched her career with a sex tape.”
For Lenk, the Lovelace/Boreman dichotomy had the echo of another famous American face.
“It was kind of an underground version of the Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jeane thing,” she says. “The most interesting thing to me was the real woman, kind of trapped in this character of Linda Lovelace.”
The role has drawn some unlikely players: Originally, the actress cast to play Lovelace onstage was Yothers, a friend of Bowman’s best known for her child-star turn as Jennifer Keaton on “Family Ties.” Yothers starred during its workshop phase in New York, but was deemed not strong enough to carry the production and replaced when it went to LA.
Lindsay Lohan was similarly slotted out of production on “Inferno,” a dueling production originally set to shoot in 2010 — but for different reasons. Although a photo shoot was released showing the actress as Lovelace — and despite a producer’s assertion that “there is no actor more ideally suited to this role than Lindsay” — the actress’ court-mandated stint in rehab got her booted and replaced with Akerman.
Although that movie is off the schedule, there may yet be more Lovelace in the works. Lenk says she’s heard talk of reviving the rock opera in New York. “Hopefully it will come back up again,” she says.
With a story so juicy, it’s bound to.