Mahershala Ali shut down Taraji P. Henson sex scene for religious reasons

Mahershala Ali refused to perform a sex scene with Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on religious grounds.

The Muslim actor agreed to play Tizzy Weathers in director David Fincher's 2008 fantasy drama on the condition he would not have to simulate intercourse in a scene featured in the original script with Henson's character Queenie.

"So my old agent called me and said, 'Mahershala, you got the part.' And I said, 'There's just one thing... There is that one sex scene where they kiss... If there's a sex scene, I can't do it,'" he recalled during an appearance on rapper Common's Mind Power Mixtape podcast. "I don't do simulated sex."

And the two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala didn't dare take things beyond a certain point when the time came to film the sexy scene with Taraji during the shoot.

"(In the final shoot) Taraji and I begin to kiss, and we fall out of the frame... It wasn't clear if (Fincher) was trying to have like some bumping and grinding... which I doubt he was. But for me even... at that time, 15 years ago, I was still like, 'OK, I can only go up to this point,' just because of - just trying to hold a space of respect for my religion."