‘Beau Is Afraid’ Director Ari Aster Wrote a Letter to Mariah Carey to Land ‘Always Be My Baby’ for That Bizarre Sex Scene

variety.com:

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot points for “Beau Is Afraid,” currently playing in theaters.

In the final act of Ari Aster’s three-hour anxiety trip “Beau Is Afraid,” Beau, played by Joaquin Phoenix, arrives very late for his mother’s funeral and finds himself reunited with his childhood love Elaine, played by Parker Posey.

It’s an awkward reunion for the two, but the two wind up in bed together. Just as they are about to have sex, Elaine pulls out her phone and the intro to Mariah Carey’s 1995 hit “Always Be My Baby” begins to play.

Speaking over Zoom, the film’s music supervisor Jemma Burns said Aster told her during their first meeting, “’If there’s one thing you do for me on this film, I have to have this Mariah Carey song.’” Burns, whose credits include “Okja” and “Top of the Lake,” knew she had to secure the song.