In the pursuit of cinematic truth, some filmmakers and actors go the extra mile to ensure every little detail on screen is as authentic as possible. This can come down to even the “orgasm face” of an actor in a steamy sex scene.
Welcome to a topic that is provocative yet pivotal in the cinematic world: unsimulated sexual scenes in films.
A number of sexcapades in movies can look so real that it makes you wonder if it’s just great acting or the real deal. In most cases, it is just actors doing their job and pretending. But there is a group of artists and directors who are dedicated to making intimate scenes in movies as realistic as possible.
Many actors have opened up about how filming sex scenes has been awkward and that there is nothing fun about it.
"Those scenes are really awkward—it doesn't matter which way you look at it," Kate Winslet once told E! News, while Liam Hemsworth once said, “It was pretty awkward when you have to take off your pants in front of [the] crew and other actors and all that stuff.”
Nevertheless, you will be surprised by how many directors and actors are willing to go all out to have unsimulated sex in scenes where actors engage in actual sex acts.
The movie Nymphomaniac had real sex going on in front of the camera, but the filmmakers cleverly disguised the scenes so that the cast members themselves wouldn't have to perform them themselves
Image credits: ABC Distribution
The makers of the movie Nymphomaniac, starring Shia LaBeouf, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Uma Thurman, and others, wanted to make sure there was real sex going on in the final cut of the movie. However, none of the actors on the main cast list actually had sex because their body doubles took care of it.
“We shot the actors pretending to have sex and then had the body doubles, who really did have sex, and in post we will digital-impose the two,” Producer Louise Vesth told The Hollywood Reporter. “So above the waist it will be the star and the below the waist it will be the doubles.”
Meanwhile, artists Kerry Fox and Mark Rylance did not need a body double to perform a sexual act in front of the camera.
The two stars were filmed having real oral sex in the controversial 2001 movie Intimacy.
Mark has said in the past that he felt reluctant to do the scene, but Director Patrice Chéreau talked him into it.
“I was convinced it was a vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London,” Mark was quoted telling The Guardian.
Kerry Fox and Mark Rylance were filmed having oral sex in the 2001 movie Intimacy
Image credits: tudio Canal
"Hanif Kureishi's writing couldn't have been more intimate and revealing, but I found the making of the film and the subsequent publicity and personal attacks very, very painful. I wish I hadn't made it,” he added.
Kerry on the other hand said she had “no regrets” about the scene.
“I absolutely have no regrets and it's one of the best pieces of work I've ever done,” she previously told Metro.
"There was apparently chemistry," Lauren Lee Smith said about her connection with co-star Eric Balfour
Image credits: CBC
For the film Lie with Me, Lauren Lee Smith stars opposite Eric Balfour and performs live sexual acts for the film.
"Are you kidding?" was her first reaction when she was told by her agent that she would have to have unsimulated sex.
She said Director Clement Virgo got her and Eric in a room together prior to the making of the movie to see if they had chemistry.
"There was apparently chemistry," Lauren laughed and said.
The erotic drama 9 Songs also had no body doubles or camera tricks when characters Lisa and Matt, played by Margo Stilley and Kieran O’Brien, were shown being intimate in the 2004 film.
9 songs is one of the most sexually explicit films in mainstream British cinematic history and caused quite a stir following its release, as it showed penetration, on-screen ejaculation, and extreme close-ups of oral sex.
Margo Stilley said she wanted to "show sex in a very positive light" through the movie 9 songs
Image credits: Optimum Releasing
“I wanted to make a film about something I really believe in, which is to show sex in a very positive light, as a very important piece of everyday life and a very important piece of a relationship, whether it's successful or unsuccessful. What I find in films I see is that sex is always a turning point in action, someone's cheating on someone, or someone dies. It's always the kids having sex in horror films that die. And I didn't like that,” Margo told The Guardian in 2005 why she chose to do the film.
Among those who believe faking it “doesn’t work” for the camera is Robert Pattinson.
The Twilight star once revealed that he pleasured himself on screen while playing artist Salvador Dali in Little Ashes.
“My orgasm face is recorded for eternity,” he was quoted telling Interview magazine.
He said faking these moments onscreen “doesn't work, so [he] pleasured [himself] in front of the camera.”
Robert Pattinson indulged in some solo pleasure onscreen while playing Salvador Dali in Little Ashes
Image credits: Kaleidoscope Entertainment
Another artist who found themselves masturbating in front of a camera was Aubrey Plaza. The Parks and Recreation actress unexpectedly found herself flying solo in bed while playing Brandy Klark in the 2013 film The To Do List.
During an interview with Conan O’Brien, the actress said the script contained a scene that said: “Brandy masturbates.”
When she had a conversation with Maggie Carey about the scene, the director replied, "Masturbate, like it says in the script."
Aubrey then pictured a “nice scene where you see my hand slowly go out of frame.” But she eventually realized it was quite the opposite.
“When I showed up, the camera was mounted on the ceiling, I was in my underwear and a Clinton T-shirt and there were a bunch of old men smoking. You know, the crew guys,” she told Conan.
“They weren’t smoking, but, my memory … and then I went and touched myself,” she continued. “I thought I was doing one thing and then, when I showed up, it was a whole different thing; it was a full-body shot.”
The actress also had steamy scenes to shoot while playing the role of a nun in The Little Hours.
She had a threesome scene with Dave Franco, whose wife Alison Brie was also part of the cast list for the movie.
“In general, sex scenes are not the most comfortable,” Dave told Los Angeles Daily News. “You almost have to approach it like it’s any other scene in the movie.”
Alison said it was “not bad at all” to see her husband do romantic scenes with their co-stars.
Alison Brie said "one of [her] favorite scenes" from The Little Hours was her husband Dave Franco having a steamy scene that included Aubrey Plaza
Image credits: Universal Pictures
“Aubrey did ask if I was gonna stay onset the day after I got wrapped, and she and Kate were about to shoot the threesome scene with Dave,” she said. “She was like, ‘Are you gonna hang out and watch the scene?’ and I was like, ‘Noooo. …’ I will say, though, it’s one of my favorite scenes in the movie. I think it’s very sexy.”
The 2009 movie Antichrist also has strong images of real sex and unsimulated penetration in different scenes. But Hollywood veteran Willem Dafoe and his co-star, Charlotte Gainsbourg, had body doubles used in those intimate shots.
Director Lars von Trier said they needed a body double in Antichrist for Willem Dafoe because of the size of his package
Image credits: Nordisk Film Distribution
"He [Willem Dafoe] has an enormous d**k, we had to take those scenes out of the film,” Director Lars von Trier said.
"We had a stand-in for him because we had to take the scenes out with his own d**k," he added, as quoted by Daily Star.
Lars was asked on The Boston Phoenix podcast whether the body double was needed because the Spiderman actor’s assets were too big to fit the screen.
“No, too big because everybody got very confused when they saw it,” he clarified.
Chloë Sevigny notoriously performed oral sex on her director and co-star Vincent Gallo for the 2003 art film The Brown Bunny
Image credits: Wellspring Worldwide
Lizzie actress Chloë Sevigny also famously performed oral sex on director and co-star Vincent Gallo for her role in The Brown Bunny.
Chloë said she isn't bothered by “the sex stuff” in movies, according to the New York Post.
Vincent and the Boys Don't Cry actress were also former lovers prior to the making of the 2003 art film The Brown Bunny, which became notoriously famous for the scene.
Here's how people reacted to discovering actors were really performing sexual acts in some mainstream movies
