Cinemas Greatest Scenes: The Pottery Scene From Ghost (1990).

Bruce Joel Rubin wrote one of the most beloved movie screenplays of all time called Ghost in 1990. But it first took many years to convince film studios that his story, a supernatural romantic thriller about a ghost trying to solve his own murder, would be something that audience would flock to see. While many in the industry agreed it was one of the best scripts written in years, executive producer Lisa Weinstein at Paramount, refused to green-light it until he did a major rewrite for the third act. The story required a happier ending, especially a sense of closure between its two main protagonist Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) and Molly Jensen (Demi Moore), who were robbed of a long life together after Sam was murdered. So Rubin went about revising the third act, which sees Sam (as a ghost) miraculously save Molly from the movies villain (Tony Goldwyn). It goes onto lead to one of the most emotional onscreen farewells ever in which Sam and Molly both get to profess their eternal love for each other.

The film’s director Jerry Zucker once said that for many years after Ghost became a phenomenal hit, movie fans would write letters explaining how the film’s emotional ending helped them deal with the death of a loved one. What makes the scene work is the extraordinary casting and chemistry between Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. Interestingly, while Moore was locked in from the beginning to play Molly, Swayze wasn’t always the film’s first choice as Sam. But in truth, when Swayze said yes to the role according to Zucker, “he basically saved the movie.” Interestingly, actors like Harrison Ford , Paul Hogan and Michael J. Fox were all considered, but they all turned it down, which gave Swayze an opening to secure the role. His audition was apparently a slam dunk and Swayze transformed Manhattan banker Sam Wheat into one of the most beloved romantic lead characters of the 1990s.

We really are spoilt for choice with an array of great set-pieces or scenes that makes Ghost a wonderful movie. While the ending is a real tear jerker, I can’t pass up the opportunity to briefly mention one of my favourite scenes, Sam’s murder. I don’t mean to be ghoulish but it really is a powerful moment. It begins when Sam and Molly exit the theatre (after seeing MacBeth) and a gunman confronts them demanding Sam’s wallet. A desperate fight breaks out and Sam tussles with the mugger and the gun goes off. We next see Sam chase after the assailant who gets away. Then when Sam walks back to see if Molly is ok, he is horrified to see himself dead on the ground in Molly’s arms bleeding out. Swayze’s performance, in particular his “freaked out” reaction caught brilliantly upon his face, gives this scene the panic, the horror and hopelessness it deserves.

Earlier on in the film before Sam untimely death, he is also “freaked out” by the thought of truly expressing in word his love for Molly. Whereas Molly has no inhibition of saying “I love you”, Sam cannot bring himself to say those words, always responding with “Ditto” instead. Nonetheless, we can still tell how deeply in love they both are with each other, and its probably no perfectly expressed than in the pottery scene, one of cinemas most beautiful and sensual moments.

Not long after we see Sam and Molly move into their New York loft, the audience soon discovers something interesting about Demi Moore’s Molly. That she is a potter. For the film’s most famous scene, the director Jerry Zucker insisted that actress Moore should first familiarise herself with the ins and outs of being a ceramic artist. So she went off to pottery school and came back having learnt some valuable skills. Once the cameras began rolling on Moore for the all important scene, no one not even the director really imagined just how magic it would turn out.

The scene begins with Molly sitting at her potter’s wheel late one night. But maybe more importantly, it is here right before Sam walks into Molly’s studio that the audience sees a jukebox switching records. When the needle drops on Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers, it immediately sets the entire mood for what’s about to take place. As Sam enters the room he asks Molly why she is still up and she replies, “I couldn’t sleep.” Here he decides to join her. As he sits quietly behind Molly, admiring her beauty and how she works the clay so effortlessly, he can’t help but to reach out to touch the spinning pot. When the fragile pot folds in on itself, Molly smiles forgivingly at Sam. Together they proceeds to rebuild a new pot, arms outstretched and hands intertwined around what now takes the form of a symbolic phallus between Molly’s legs. Moreover as Sam continue to inch ever so closer, embracing Molly even tighter in his arms in between kisses, the electricity between them spills out all over the screen tenfold. 

The pottery scene was meant to be a prelude to a much bigger explicit love scene in the bedroom. But as Zucker explained years after the movies release, “The pottery scene proved to be so erotic that we didn’t need anything else.” Eroticism aside, the scene acts as a wonderful metaphor for rekindled love, passion and trust within a relationship. 

Behind the scenes, both Swayze and Moore were pretty embarrassed about performing the scene even though it was on a closed set with a small crew. Swayze in particular has admitted on many occasions that he found doing love scenes insanely nerve-wracking. Moore has also spoken about how the two of them felt like awkward high school kid on a first date. Though Swayze’s probably best sums up the whole experience in his autobiography Time of My Life, where he says, “I was happy — and relieved — with how it turned out…. Demi and I had managed to capture a moment between these two people that made everything that happened later in the story feel that much more wrenching and emotional.” 

To this day, Demi Moore still has the clay pots she made with the late, great Patrick Swayze (d. 2009). The pots might not be masterpieces but they are sentimental to her and a reminder of both Swayze and her experiences of making Ghost.