‘Back in Action’ director on Glenn Close, Jamie Demetriou makeout scenes

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Back in Action.

All the explosions and fight sequences in Back in Action could not hold a candle to Glenn Close and Jamie Demetriou’s makeout scenes.

The action-comedy from director Seth Gordon features the formidable Close as Ginny, an MI6 operative vet and the estranged mother of Cameron Diaz’s character, Emily. Demetriou layers on the comedic relief as Nigel, the daft, much younger lover of Ginny with aspirations to become a spy — and he actually comes in (albeit accidentally) with a big save as former CIA spy Emily and husband Matt (Jamie Foxx) battle it out with friend-turned-foe Chuck (Kyle Chandler). 

Throughout the movie, Ginny and Nigel pack on the PDA with impassioned makeout scenes, much to the horror of Emily and her family.

“They were ravenous,” Gordon tells Entertainment Weekly, laughing about Close and Demetriou’s willingness to go all in. “There was only one scripted kiss, but they were all over each other — so much that I had to cut out some of ’em. It was like, whoa. But they were perfect for each other.”

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He adds of Nigel, “I wrote that role for Jamie and Jamie alone, having also loved him in Fleabag. He was cast before Andrew [Scott, as Emily and Matt’s former colleague Baron]. I came up with it sort of too close to production. The minute they got near each other, it was like fireworks. They were just so good together.”

Of the truly starry ensemble, “We got lucky all over the board, really, on this movie,” says Gordon. Luring Diaz out of retirement, too, was surreal. “It all starts with Jamie,” says the director. “He had been friends with her and worked with her on a few films. I think he must have known that there was an openness to the possibility of reading things. And this one really sort of coincidentally spoke to an echo of her own life: that the character was in retirement and there was a reason that she had to come back. And her experience as a mom now, too.”

“They said to me, ‘Would you possibly be open to the idea of Cameron?’ And I was like, ‘What? Are you kidding me? Of course,’” recalls Gordon. “She wasn’t someone that I thought I was allowed to consider as a possibility because of her retirement. It was too good to be true.”

Back in Action is streaming now on Netflix.