The movie adaption of best-selling novel Fifty Shades of Gray continues to make headlines even before its release. In a new interview with Variety, director Sam Taylor-Wood confirms one of the most controversial scenes in the book will not make the jump to the big screen.

Taylor-Wood reported that the infamous moment in the novel when wealthy Christian Gray removes his new lover Anastasia Steele’s tampon before intercourse failed to make it into the movie script. “It was never even discussed,” Taylor-Wood admits.

The decision seems in keeping with the studio’s attempts to keep the film accessible by avoiding a NC-17 rating. Donna Langley, chair of the film’s studio backer Universal Pictures, tells Variety, “We weren’t making a film to shock people by how explicit it is. We want the audience to be invited in, not repelled.”

The article reveals that the final script required at least 2 rewrites in an attempt to find the happy medium between keeping faithful to the book and creating a viable and self-contained movie. Taylor-Wood reveals that, “on the early draft, there was the sense there was way too much sex. The story, of course, is of equal importance. We tried to balance the narrative correctly, so one doesn’t feel like it’s drowning the other.”

Despite the multiple rewrites and difficult decisions of which details to include, the book’s author and movie’s producer E.L. James tells Variety she is pleased with the final result. The book “is first and foremost a romantic love story, and sex is only part of that,” she acknowledges.

The film stars Jamie Dornan as Christian Gray and Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele. It hits theatres on February 13.