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Saltburn director reveals explicit real reason why the film is called Saltburn

11 January 2024, 17:25

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By Katie Louise Smith

"[It's] like a sort of sting... a pleasurable sting. And I think that's kind of what the film is, really."

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You might think you know the reason why Saltburn is titled Saltburn, but you're not ready for the actual reason why Saltburn is called Saltburn.

Obviously, in the film, Saltburn is the name of the estate owned by the Cattons where Oliver spends his summer. But it's also the name of a real place in North Yorkshire in England. The small seaside town appears to have only inspired the film title by name, and not by actual location as the titular house is in a completely different region of the country.

Now, director Emerald Fennell has revealed that there's another layer to the reason why she called the film Saltburn, and it's hilariously explicit.

Emerald Fennell reveals the explicit reason why Saltburn is called Saltburn. Picture: Amazon Prime Video

Speaking to Access Hollywood on the red carpet at the Governor's Awards (Jan 9), Emerald dived into the slightly NSFW reason why she chose the specific name for the film.

"Somebody asked why it was called 'Saltburn' and I said because it's a real town in England. And when I heard the name 'Saltburn', it sounded like a sex injury. But a really nice one, you know, like a sort of sting... a pleasurable sting. And I think that's kind of what the film is, really."

Rosamund Pike, who is standing next to Emerald in the clip, then jokes, "She gave me Saltburn," before Emerald quips, "Sort of like, 'Rosamund, are you ok?' 'No she's got Saltburn'."

"Every word that comes out of her mouth," Rosamund continued. "You know, this is why the script was irresistible because you just think, 'yes, I want to say that!'"

Speaking of the Saltburn script, Rosamund recently opened up about how she improvised some of Elspeth's funniest lines in the film.

"Emerald allowed us to usually improvise our way into most scenes, and sometimes little bits of that are captured. It was fun with Elspeth because I could just look up anything from 2006/7 and riff on it at dinner," she told Deadline.

Rosamund and Carey Mulligan's first scene where their characters are talking about the location of Liverpool was improvised and later added to the script by Emerald.