Phoebe Dynevor, Kate Winslet, Emilia Clarke and more describe what really happens when you pretend to have sex surrounded by bright lights and a crowd of crew members
01. ‘Super Safe’
Phoebe Dynevor spoke to Harper’s Bazaar about how much time and preparation went into blocking the seemingly effortless sex scenes with Regé-Jean Page in Netlix’s new hit series Bridgerton.
“It really was like shooting a stunt, it looked real, but we’ve got padding on,” the actress told the outlet. “The angles are very … I mean, I’ve shot intimacy scenes before in the past without any of that. And I can’t believe really how new this all is, because it just changed the game.”
She added that the show’s intimacy coach, Lizzy Talbot, helped the pair to feel comfortable. “We felt super safe and it just meant that when we got on set, we already knew exactly what we’re doing. We’d blocked it all so specifically. I knew exactly where his hand was going to go at what point. So it just meant that there wasn’t any room for a director to go, ‘Oh, I want to see this now.'”
02
Equal
Normal People stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal discussed their steamy love scenes during a panel discussion on the hit BBC and Hulu show (based on Sally Rooney’s novel of the same name) at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Aug. 26.
“The idea of shooting those scenes may be far more anxious than the actual shooting process from day to day,” said Mescal, according to Variety. “There’s an awkward 10 minutes when you’re like, okay, I have to be relatively naked in front of a group of strangers… from an actor’s perspective you’ve got to treat that the same way you would a scene where you’re speaking to each other.” Intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien was closely consulted to create a safe and comfortable work space, Variety reports.
Edgar-Jones added, “Another element that I was proud that was part of the series was the equality in nudity between Paul and I, I think that’s really important.” She continued, “Also, if you’re trying to tell the truth about a relationship, you have to also include the truth of what that means in terms of intimacy.”
03
Uncomfortable
Kate Winslet has done her fair share of on-screen love scenes, but time and experience haven’t made it any less awkward for the Oscar winner. “Those scenes are really awkward — it doesn’t matter which way you look at it,” Winslet told E! News about her romantic scene with Idris Elba in The Mountain Between Us, before revealing that she gave the film’s director, Hany Abu-Assad, some pointers. “‘Okay, everyone — this is how it’s going to be,'” Winslet recalled saying. Still, getting steamy with Elba has its perks: “All my friends are so jealous of me,” she joked.
04
‘Brilliant’
Game of Thrones has no shortage of nudity and sex scenes, but only one of them caused Emilia Clarke to actually thank the show’s creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. The actress told Elle that filming her commanding sex scene with Michiel Huisman in Game of Thrones’ fourth season was “brilliant. I actually went up to [them] and thanked them. I was like, ‘That’s a scene I’ve been waiting for!’ Because I get a lot of crap for having done nudes scenes and sex scenes. That, in itself, is so antifeminist. Women hating on other women is just the problem. That’s upsetting, so it’s kind of wonderful to have a scene where I was like, ‘There you go!'”
05
Embarrassing
When it came time to rehearse for her sex scene with costar Woody Harrelson for their film, Wilson, Judy Greer made it a point to get into it. “I’m gonna really do my full performance here for this rehearsal so everyone knows what I’m gonna do,” Greer recalled to PEOPLE of how she hyped herself up for the scene.
But as Greer quickly found out, she might have gotten herself a little too hyped. After the rehearsal, the film’s director, Craig Johnson, walked over to her and cautioned, “I don’t think she’s that into it.”
“And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, never again,'” Greer said. “I’m so embarrassed. I’m so mortified.”
06
Emotionally Taxing
For her turn in Big Little Lies, Kidman took on the role of Celeste, a mother of two who often engaged in rough sexual acts to please her abusive husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgård). “I felt very exposed and vulnerable and deeply humiliated at times,” the 50-year-old actress admitted to W of filming the demanding scenes.
One scene in episode 7 particularly stood out for Kidman. “I remember lying on the floor in the bathroom … and I just wouldn’t get up in-between takes,” she recalled.
“I was just lying there, sort of broken and crying, and I remember at one point [director Jean-Marc Vallée] coming over and just sort of placing a towel over me because I was just lying there in half-torn underwear and just basically on the ground with nothing on and I was just, like [gasps].”
07
Demanding
Pretty Little Liars star Ian Harding delved into details of sex scene prep in his 2017 memoir Odd Birds. Harding admitted that shooting steamy scenes for the series was generally awkward, and that it was the “only” time actors would avoid snacking and instead head to their dressing rooms to do push-ups. He also wrote about constantly having to shave to achieve a “smooth, porpoise-y chest” for the show, and how he “flossed at least three times” and “gargled between every take” when it came time to film a makeout scene in the pilot.
08
Relaxed
After her co-star, Ian Harding, revealed that he “flossed at least three times” and “gargled [mouthwash] between every take” while shooting their first kiss in the Pretty Little Liars pilot, Lucy Hale admitted that the pair got very comfortable very quickly. “Not towards the end, he didn’t!” Hale told PEOPLE of her on-screen beau’s oral hygiene habits. “I think when we started working with each other we were both super nervous and making sure we were in tip-top shape, and then towards the end we didn’t care.”
09
Long
When Kirsten Dunst filmed an intense love scene with Colin Farrell for their film The Beguiled, she had one question in mind: Are we done yet? “I am on the floor and my clothes are being ripped,” Dunst explained to E! News at CinemaCon. “I don’t like it, I don’t like it. To be honest, I’m like, ‘Let’s get this over with as fast as possible.'” Luckily, she said, director Sofia Coppola understood her complaints, and moved as quickly as possible. “At least Sofia’s like, ‘We’re going to get this done quick, we’re just gonna shoot it here, we’ll do three takes, be done.'”
10
… Warm?
“The shower was warm, so that was nice,” Scott Eastwood said of his steamy shower sex scene in The Longest Ride.
