Movie Memories is the ongoing feature in which we ask famous people to tell us the instance of movie male nudity that left an indelible impression on their once-impressionable minds.
This week, OMG.BLOG friend and violinista Owen Pallett remembers a scene from the 1986 coming-of-age film Stand By Me that will likely be familiar to many gay children of the ’80s.
“It wasn’t quite nudity, but it had a huge impact,” he explains. “Corey, Jerry, River and Wil are fighting in the swamp, and then they discover they’re covered in leeches. They all strip down to their underwear and pull the leeches off each other. Wil pulls out the waistband of his underpants, looks inside, says, ‘Oh shit’, then pulls out a blood-covered leech and faints.
“I wasn’t allowed to watch R-rated movies when I was five, so I didn’t Stand By Me until I was 12, same age as the kids in the movie,” he continues. “My mom had told me about that scene a few times; she thought it was hilarious. When I finally saw it, I didn’t get the joke. Finding a leech on balls isn’t a punchline.”
Watch the scene and read more after the jump.