Before The Devil Knows You're Dead opens with Phillip Seymour Hoffman naked and making love from behind to an equally starkers Marisa Tomei in front of a mirror.

The scene leaves little to the imagination but director Sidney Lumet says it was Hoffman who was more nervous than Tomei.

"She was very relaxed about it, as well she should be, she's a ravishing bird," Lumet, 83, told Sun Media yesterday at TIFF.

"And it's very touching about actors because they understand these sensitivities with each other. Clearly, Phillip is not a conventional leading man. He doesn't have a commerical leading man's physique, etc., etc., and out of Marisa's sensitivity to that, she jumped up on the bed, on her knees and on her elbows and slapped her bottom and said, 'C'mon Phil, let's go!' Which is just wonderful because it just relaxed him so 'cause I'm sure that he's never done that."