Jeff Goldblum Got Covered In K-Y Jelly For A Cut Scene From The Fly

David Cronenberg's 1986 film "The Fly," based on the 1957 short story by George Langelaan, follows an engineer named Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) who has invented a way to teleport matter. At the beginning of the film, he only knows how to teleport small, inorganic objects, and still endeavors to build a machine that can teleport human beings. He will eventually be successful, although he encounters an unexpected wrinkle. When testing the teleportation pod on himself, a rogue housefly gets in with him, confusing the machine. He arrives in a second teleportation pod with the fly DNA spliced into his own. 

The bulk of the film sees Seth slowly mutating and deteriorating into an encrusted fly man. For a long time, Seth wonders why his skin is scabbing over, why his teeth are falling out, and why he vomits acid on his food before eating it. The transformation is disgusting and tragic, and Seth's girlfriend Ronnie (Geena Davis) can only watch in sadness as Seth wastes away. Cronenberg has said repeatedly in interviews that "The Fly" is meant to be a metaphor for watching a loved one dying of disease. 

There is a striking scene in the middle of "The Fly" when Seth realizes that he can climb on walls, just like a fly. His hands seem to excrete an adhesive ooze that allow him to do so. This scene was originally meant to parallel a secondary climbing scene, ultimately cut from the movie, in which Seth tries to scale a brick wall in an alleyway, but slid to the ground when his adhesive wore off. In David Prior's 2005 documentary "Fear the Flesh: The Making of the Fly," Goldblum recalled shooting the cut scene ... and all the K-Y jelly involved in his wall-slide.

K-Y Jelly is a water-based lubricant that has been on the market since 1904, and remains one of the most popular personal sexual products available. Its slick texture and water-based formula also make it handy for movie sets, and certain slimy movie monsters were likely coated in K-Y jelly or a similar substance before cameras rolled. Goldblum remembers filming the alley scene, including the giant false wall (built at a 30° angle), his massive, full-body fly suit, and the slippery lubricant he was dotted with. Goldblum, in his memorably halting fashion, said: 

"What I really remember is that little middle section where they built ... a faux-brick wall, like a couple stories or so high, on an angle, like that, with a couple of window frames in it on a soundstage. And the camera would ... follow me. I had to go to the top of this thing and in order to slip down the thing ... I had this suit on, you know, it was a big suit. And it's kind of sticky, it's rubber. So in order to slide down this thing, they had to jelly me all up with, like, K-Y Jelly actually, did he tell you this?" 

In "Fear the Flesh," one can see video footage from the set, and the large plaster wall Cronenberg had constructed. In the footage, it's clear that Goldblum's fly suit is indeed rubber (it looks fake without the proper cameras and lighting), and that it would have definitely stuck to the wall without proper lubrication. "They took, like, tube after tube, just dut dut dut dut, and smear it all over me," Goldblum said of the K-Y, "And I go to the top of this thing and, 'Action!'" 

It's a pity that the sliding scene was cut, as Goldblum seemed to have a wonderful time shooting it ... even if he did also feel a little silly. Getting coated in sexual lubricant and launching yourself into a tin roof isn't necessarily covered when one is studying their Stanislavski. Goldblum said: 

"I'm falling and take a big kind of amusement park slide down this thing and then land, boom, on this tin corrugated roof. And, bang! [laughs] And did that a few times. It was fun, but it was also a little like, 'Gee, what, and quit show business?' It was, like, you know, I guess this is adult ... entertainment in some way. And then they cut it out. Yeah. K-Y Jelly."

The documentary also features several additional rehearsals on the slanted set wherein Goldblum and Chris Walas, noted creature creator and special effects technician, talked about the sliding scene. 

Because the Seth character had a scene in his lab wherein he was climbing on the walls and ceiling, the alleyway scene was a little extraneous. One can see why Cronenberg chose to cut it. What's more, audiences were given extended looks at Seth's full fly transformation during the film's climax when Ronnie accidentally pulls off his lower jaw, forcing a monstrous fly head to emerge from within Seth's skull. The makeup effects in "The Fly" are easily some of the best in cinema history, and Walas won an Academy Award.