Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson Explain How They Pulled Off That ‘Verity’ Headboard Scene

Colleen Hoover has a way of turning small, strange details into cultural moments. A single line she wrote in her 2018 novel has now spent years being discussed by readers, and it just made the jump to the big screen.

Amazon MGM Studios’ adaptation of ‘Verity‘ took the top spot at the domestic box office with $32.6 million from 3,510 North American locations, and critics were not on board, with a 34% score, though audiences ate it up. The film follows Johnson’s Lowen, a struggling novelist hired to ghostwrite a popular series after its author, Verity, played by Hathaway, is incapacitated. Lowen then moves into Verity’s home and becomes entangled with her husband, Jeremy, played by Josh Hartnett.

That is where one of the most talked-about props in recent movie memory comes in, and it has nothing to do with the plot twists.

@amazonmgmstudiosca Bite me. Verity – only in theatres October 2. #VerityFilm ♬ original sound – Amazon MGM Studios CA

Hathaway and Johnson told Entertainment Weekly about the surprisingly technical process behind the bite marks on a wooden bed frame. Hathaway explained that the piece had to be something that could pass for a real bed but was still soft enough to bite into. Johnson summed up the work by saying it was just her and Hathaway on separate days, “gnawing on wood.”

The pair did not exactly have an easy assignment. Johnson’s biggest concern was figuring out how to make it look sexy without losing any teeth. Hathaway told the Australian podcast The Spill that the prop was balsa wood, and that she and director Michael Showalter each brought their own version of the bite to a meeting to compare.

Showalter’s demonstration did not go over perfectly. Hathaway recalled telling him his bite looked like he was eating a sandwich, and the two eventually settled on an approach together.

Hartnett, whose character is involved in the scenes, had an easier time of it. He told Entertainment Weekly that he was able to go home while his co-stars finished the bite marks. He later recalled seeing a series of headboard pieces on the prop table with different bite marks on them, and he teased the actresses that they must have spent a while on each one.

For Hathaway, the detail was non-negotiable. She told E! News that she never thought she would bite a headboard on camera in her life, adding with a laugh that it was just a Tuesday.

Hoover has said that when she wrote the bite marks into the book she had no idea the moment would become so memorable, or that it would end up on the film’s promotional merchandise. Movie theaters are now selling memorabilia that features bite marks to celebrate the film’s release.

The bite marks are only one piece of the film’s appeal. Showalter has described making an erotic psychological thriller as a lifelong dream, and said he drew inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock and from ’80s and ’90s erotic thrillers.

It has also been a strong start for the studio. ‘Verity’ earned an estimated $62.5 million worldwide, the second-best opening for a Colleen Hoover adaptation behind ‘It Ends With Us,’ and it did so on a modest $40 million budget.

Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett star in an all-new trailer for #Verity. In theaters October 2. https://t.co/niq02J5nO5

— Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 (@RottenTomatoes) August 11, 2026

For a movie built on forbidden desire and a trail of ominous clues, the most memorable detail is the one that required a table of test props and a lot of careful chewing. Sometimes the sexiest moments on screen are the ones that take the most practical effort off it.

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