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Cheating on one's spouse isn't something to be celebrated, but you'd never know that in Hollywood. Extramarital affairs in films occur about as often as they do in actors' real lives—which is to say, really often—and, though characters often meet consequences for their actions, forbidden love stories are almost always hot. From Diane Lane and Olivier Martinez in the classic infidelity film Unfaithful, to Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried in not-so-classic infidelity film Chloe, there's something undeniably alluring about a couple of lookers who shouldn't be together throwing their morals out the window and exploring the illicit on screen. After all, it's just fiction.
In honor of this Friday's US release of The Deep Blue Sea, in which Rachel Weisz plays an old British judge's wife who gets it in with a dashing Royal Air Force pilot (Tom Hiddleston), we took a look at The 10 Hottest Extramarital Affairs In Movies.
Written by Tanya Ghahremani (@TanyaGhahremani)
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10. Jonathan Rhys Meyers & Scarlett Johansson in Matchpoint (2005)
In the 2005 Woody Allen drama, Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays Chris Wilton, a tennis instructor in London who falls for a pupil's hot, blonde fiancée, Nola (Scarlett Johansson), despite the fact that he's married to said pupil's sister, Chloë (Emily Mortimer). What follows is a whirlwind affair that is so classically fucked up in classic Allen fashion—though he is in love with Nola, he begins to regret lying to his wife, a feeling that is exacerbated when Nola informs him that she's pregnant.
Chris encourages Nola to get an abortion, but homegirl's clearly been listening to a lot of Madonna recently and tells him that she's made up her mind and she's keeping her baby. She asks him to leave his wife so that they can raise the child together, but Chris, worried that he'll lose everything his marriage to Chloë has given him, namely a high paying job with Chloë's father's company, instead kills Nola and makes it look like a burglary gone awry.
Sure, it ends in Nola's murder and Chris is a horrible person who manages to get away with the crime, but any affair involving Scarlett Johansson is a hot one in our book.
9. Jude Law & Julia Roberts in Closer (2004)
Watching Closer, you would think the world is much tinier than it is; how is it possible that a group of four people, two men and two women, could so easily stumble into each other's lives over a lengthy period of time without even trying? Should we be chocking it up to the cruel hand of fate, or just an overzealous screenwriter?
Regardless, the film in itself is fascinating: As previously mentioned, it follows the stories of four individuals all woven into each others lives in a web of lies, deceit, sexual tension, and...well, more lies. The main character is Dan Woolf (Jude Law) a British writer who falls in love with a 20-year-old American ex-stripper, Alice (Natalie Portman). A year later, however, he cheats on her with an American photographer, Anna (Julia Roberts), but nothing actually substantial happens until a year later when Anna is dating a British doctor, Larry (Clive Owen). The two carry on an affair, though Dan stays with Alice and Anna actually marries Larry during the duration of it; it carries on through Anna's marriage to Larry until its eventual deterioration when the affair becomes known.
Though we don't see much of Dan and Anna's affair in the film, we certainly hear a lot about it: In what is one of the best scenes of the film, Anna confesses to Larry that she's been having an affair with Dan. Larry proceeds to interrogate her about the affair, and, well, lots of dirty details are revealed in the heat of the moment. We'll let you hear it from them.
8. Maribel Verdú & Gael García Bernal & Diego Luna in Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Though the affair portrayed in Y tu mamá también is by no means the most classic case of infidelity, it certainly is one of the most interesting...and hottest. The film follows two friends, Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael García Bernal), who embark on a road trip through rural Mexico with Tenoch's cousin's wife, a slightly older, Spanish woman named Luisa (Maribel Verdú). Obviously, this results in the three growing rather close, and Luisa ends up seducing and sleeping with both Tenoch and Julio separately. And then at the same time.
There's a lot more to it than that, but need we really say more? We're sure you're already Googling the shit out of it anyway, so we'll make it simple for you. You're welcome.
7. Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line (2005)
The story of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash is pretty legendary at this point, so it'd be a bit of a crime not to include the Academy Award-winning portrayal of it from 2005's Walk the Line on this list.
The film, of course, follows Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) as he finds fame, a drug and alcohol addiction, and love with fellow country singer June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). Though Cash is married when he meets June, the two grow close while on tour and end up sleeping together in Vegas (how fitting). June, however, cannot get past his abuse of drugs and alcohol, and the two split up while Cash's marriage and sanity begin to deteriorate. His love for June is the one thing that stays constant even as he doesn't, and eventually the two reconcile for good on stage in perfect Hollywood form.
And, because it's all based on true events, we know for certain how the story ends: The real June and Cash remained blissfully married until their deaths in May and September of 2003, respectively. How's that for a happy ending?
6. Kevin Spacey & Mena Suvari in American Beauty (1999)
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) and Angela Hayes's (Mena Suvari) relationship in the 1999 masterpiece American Beauty is the very definition of forbidden. Lester is a middle-aged, married suburban writer who hates pretty much everything about his life, while Angela is the seductive, bright-eyed, blonde cheerleader who is still very much in high school and is his daughter Jane's (Thora Birch) best friend.
They couldn't be more different—or illegal—but that doesn't stop Lester from forming a deep-seated crush on Angela after seeing her at a basketball game at Jane's school. As it turns out, Angela shares his attraction, and one night after a fight with Jane she attempts to seduce him. It doesn't go anywhere, however, because Lester stops himself once she reveals that she's a virgin and they instead bond over their completely fucked up situations.
Though the actual affair didn't go far, Lester's sexual fantasizing leading up to it supplied us with one of the most iconic images in cinema to date: Mena Suvari drowning in a sea of bright red rose petals. Yeah, it sounds weird, but hey, whatever floats his boat.
5. Ethan Hawke & Marisa Tomei in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
This film is, perhaps, the best example of an extramarital affair leading to the worst possible results. Ethan Hawke plays Hank, a man who's persuaded by this brother, Andy (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), to rob their parents' jewelry store for cash. Unbeknownst to Andy, Hank is having an affair with his wife, the lovely Gina (Marisa Tomei).
The robbery goes wrong, and both their partner, Bobby, and their mother, Nanette, are killed; though they get away with the crime, they're racked with guilt and soon blackmailed by Bobby's brother-in-law, who knows they were behind the robbery. The stress of being a terrible person puts a major strain on Andy's already weak marriage to Gina, and in an effort to illicit a reaction from him, Gina tells Andy about the affair she's been having with Hank. When he's unresponsive, she leaves.
Turns out, though, Andy was just biding his time, because he does eventually end up snapping when he's in Hank's vicinity and holding a gun. Andy is shot by Bobby's widow before he can kill Hank, however, and ends up being smothered by his own father in the hospital after Hank confesses that they were behind the robbery of the jewelry store.
Though most of the situation is completely Andy's fault—he should have never planned a robbery in the first place—it's really Hank and Gina's affair that results in Andy's death. Their infidelity indirectly caused tons of bloodshed and peril. Though Marisa Tomei's hotness has never been more evident than it is in this film (she should be in more movies), we suggest viewers take the plot as some twisted lesson, an incentive never to cheat. It probably won't end this way, but you never know.
4. Patrick Wilson & Kate Winslet in Little Children (2006)
Infidelity in films doesn't often end with both parties realizing their mistakes and going home to their spouses with no repercussions, but in the case of Little Children, this is exactly what happens. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson portray Sarah and Brad, two married individuals living in the suburbs of Boston who meet at a local playground where their kids are playing.
Both unhappy in their marriages, they begin an affair that results in Brad coaxing Sarah to run away with him. She agrees, but the two never meet to carry out their plan. Sarah realizes her mistake before she's set to meet Brad, and Brad injures himself on the way to meet Sarah and tells the paramedics to call his wife. Both parties return to their lives after their transgression different people, but are able to continue living their lives the same. In other words, what consequences?
The affair itself between Sarah and Brad, though shallow and rooted in mere desire for excitement amidst the boring, monotonous way of life in the suburbs, is undeniably hot. The film boasts some of Kate Winslet's best sex scenes to date, and if that's not enough to sway a viewer, what else is?
3. Jeremy Irons & Juliette Binoche in Damage (1992)
Damage is perhaps one of the best and sexiest films about infidelity that's out there. Not only is there a whole slew of sex scenes, but the outcome to Stephen's (Jeremy Irons) affair with Anna (Juliette Binoche) is realistic: Stephen loses everything, and is left disgraced and alone by the the movie's end.
But that's just the ending. The film itself follows British cabinet minister Stephen Fleming as he engages in a very sexual affair with a French woman named Anna, who happens to be romantically involved with his son, Martyn (Rupert Graves). He becomes rather obsessed with her, and they carry on their affair even after Martyn proposes to Anna and she accepts.
It only comes to an end after they are discovered by Martyn in bed together and he, distraught, stumbles over a stairwell railing to his death. The affair is made public, and Stephen loses his family, as well as Anna.
2. Olivier Martinez & Diane Lane in Unfaithful (2002)
Unfaithful follows the story of Connie Sumner (Diane Lane), a woman living in New York City who engages in an extramarital affair with Paul (Olivier Martinez), a man she meets while attempting to hail a cab. Though it starts out innocently enough, their relationship soon turns into a very sexual one that is noticed by her husband, Edward (Richard Gere). After discovering the affair, Edward ends up killing Paul in a rage, and disposes of the body in a dump. Killing Paul is clearly not a great method of problem solving, but apparently that doesn't matter to Edward.
The film is undoubtedly the most iconic when it comes to portraying an extramarital affair; though it's not exactly a masterpiece, Lane's performance as the troubled wife stepping out on her husband is nothing short of spectacular, and not to mention supremely hot, as the sex scenes boil over with passion.
1. Julianne Moore & Amanda Seyfried in Chloe (2009)
Though Amanda Seyfried's character, Chloe, turns out to be a bit of a psychotic bitch, it doesn't change the fact that this movie as a whole is amazingly hot. It's always the crazy ones anyway, isn't it?
Catherine (Julianne Moore), a married gynecologist, suspects that her husband, a college professor (Liam Neeson), is having an affair with one of his students, Chloe. Turns out, Chloe is also a call girl, and after stalking her for a bit, Catherine decides to "hire" her in order to make sure her husband is being faithful. What results is her own infidelity with Chloe, and it turns out her husband had been faithful all along. Chloe, however, proves to be a psycho who was obsessed with Catherine, but that's besides the point.
The affair is wrong, yes, because it is an act of infidelity, but it's also two bonafide hotties getting it on. So wrong it's right sort of thing? Oh, and there's some awesomely NSFW video.