Lee Daniels - Lee Daniels Almost Cut Controversial The Paperboy Scene

The big screen adaptation of Pete Dexter's book of the same name was met with mixed reviews when the Precious filmmaker premiered the thriller at the film festival in France last week (ends27May12), and many reporters were turned off by the sight of the Oscar winner relieving herself on Efron to treat a jellyfish sting.

Daniels admits the scene was nearly left on the cutting room floor and it was Kidman herself who convinced him to keep it in the movie.

He tells GQ magazine, "I got nervous at the end, after we shot it. So I called Nicole. First of all, it was really hard to shoot. It was the third day. The first scene we shot was the sex scene with John (Cusack and Kidman). I like to get that right out of the way. The second day was the telepathic sex scene in the prison. And the third day of shooting was the p**s scene.

"But... right before I sent it off to Cannes, I called Nicole at three in the morning. I said, 'Nicole, I can't do it, I've gone too far. I can't put that scene in the movie.'

"She said, 'Lee, you made me pee on Zac Efron, if you don't put that in the movie, you're out of your freakin' mind.' That was the one where I thought, 'Oh... No...' When you're doing the script it makes sense, when you're shooting it, it makes sense, but then you see the totality and you're like, 'Woah. Woah.'"

Daniels also reveals the scene was especially memorable for Efron: "If you could have watched Zac's face... He's supposed to be passed out and (while she's peeing) he's just got this smile on his face. I'm like, 'Zac, pretend like you're dead!' And he's just got this crazy smile on his face. The whole thing's crazy."