Saltburn writer reveals there was an alternative ending that changes everything for Oliver

Right now everyone is talking about movie Saltburn. You can understand why, the film is provocative and certainly has a few *moments* that are worth chatting about. One big part of the film is the ending, but the writer of Saltburn has now revealed there was a very different, alternative way the film was originally going to end.

As it stands, at the end of the film we learn that Oliver has successfully killed the entire Catton family, and is now lord of the Saltburn manor. He dances gleefully like a King, completely naked, through the halls of his new residence as Murder on the Dancefloor by Sophie Ellis-Bextor plays. Iconic.

However, Saltburn writer and director Emerald Fennell has said this wasn’t her initial vision for Barry Keoghan’s character. He was in fact meant to walk through the manor, fully clothed, before sitting down to breakfast. He was then going to be served runny eggs by footman Duncan, in a nod to the previously very awkward egg scene.

Speaking of why the alternative Saltburn ending didn’t happen and the one we now see did, Emerald Fennell told Entertainment Weekly: “A walkthrough didn’t have that post-coital triumph. If we all did our job correctly, you are on Oliver’s side.

“You don’t care what he does, you want him to do it. You are both completely repulsed and sort of on his side. It’s that kind of dance with the devil. It’s like, ‘Fuck. Okay, let’s go.’ And so at the end, it needed to have a triumph, a post-coital win, a desecration.”

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Barry Keoghan has also spoken about his character’s change of ending, and said he wasn’t completely sold at first about being naked, but soon changed his mind.

“The initial thing was about me having no clothes on. I’m a bit, ehhh,” he said. “But after take one, I was ready to go. I was like, ‘Let’s go again. Let’s go again.’ You kind of forget, because there’s such a comfortable environment created, and it gives you that license to go, ‘All right, this is about the story now.'”

The final continuous shot was filmed 11 times before settling on the right one, and Barry Keoghan said it then felt “totally right.” He said: “It’s ownership. This is my place. It’s full confidence in, I can do what I want in this manor. I can strip to my barest and waltz around because this is mine. Yeah… it was fun.”

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Right, was Barry Keoghan wearing a prosthetic in THAT Saltburn final scene?

• Shock, rich people are using Saltburn to show off their humungous houses on TikTok

• Here’s what Saltburn’s director has to say about THAT shocking grave scene