How Sex Scenes Are Filmed In Movies

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WARNING: The following article may contain sexual content, mature themes, and major spoilers unsuitable for readers under 18. Reader discretion is advised. 😉

Key Takeaways

  • Sex scenes require detailed choreography and rehearsals.
  • Intimacy coordinators play a crucial role in planning and executing sex scenes safely.
  • Filming sex scenes involves props to ensure actors’ comfort while maintaining realism.

How many times have you watched a steamy sex scene in a movie or a racy hookup in a television show and wondered how they did it? Are the love scenes real? Are they having fun? How many times did they film the scene?

Fear not. I did all the NSFW research for you, so you don’t have to worry about that questionable search history on your work computer. 

It’s time to get down and dirty and find out how they film sex scenes in movies and television.

Introduction

What we see on the big screen is deceiving. According to many actors and directors, some of the most iconic love scenes in film history are not as desirable as they appear.

When filming a sex scene, there are many moving parts in addition to the actors in bed. Like dangerous stunts and action-packed fight scenes, blocking and mapping the scene is an important first step.

Directors and actors rehearse, choreograph, or even improvise sex scenes on the spot. The filming process sometimes requires an intimacy coordinator, a specialized professional.

A Brief History of Sex in Film

Sex in films wasn’t something always allowed. Once upon a time, holding hands was considered obscene. In the movie The Kiss (1896), people lost their minds at the first-ever onscreen kiss between May Irwin and John Rice.

The film was only 18 seconds long, an excerpt of the stage musical comedy The Widow Jones.

Eventually, cinema loosened up, and The Outlaw (1943) and The French Line (1953) revealed the first cleavages. From that point, the gloves came off, and what was considered erotic in film and television expanded.

The level of sexuality in film ranges from actors appearing naturally nude to explicit nudity relevant to the film’s story or gratuitous, pornographic sex. 

We’ll leave getting into pornographic sex for somebody else and focus solely on nudity and sex scenes in mainstream television and feature films.

However, check out the Best female in prison movies list if you need some satisfaction.

How is a steamy night of passion in the bedroom filmed? Do the actors wing it, or is every single hand placement and heavy breath carefully calculated?

Do you like it rehearsed, choreographed, or improvised?

You remember the saying, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Well, that adage holds in the filming of sex scenes. Let me explain to you the birds and bees of cinema.

In film and television, the scenes are very intricate moments of filming to protect the actors involved and the scene’s authenticity. It takes an entire village to film one sex scene, whether it involves one or more actors.

Blocking is an essential step of the production process for sex scenes. Directors and intimacy coordinators assist the actors in how they appear on camera.

Are sex scenes improvised?

Here’s a fun clip with Keira Knightley on The Graham Norton Show talking about the sex scenes in the movie A Dangerous Method (2011).

Sometimes, actors can get a little creative during the sex scene. While improvisation can happen during sex scenes, it’s not as expected.

Director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club, Big Little Lies, Sharp Objects) believes that choreography during a sex scene can mess up the rhythm and flow. In most of his projects, he prefers not to choreograph or block the sex scenes.

In the 2014 film Wild (2014), starring Reese Witherspoon, there was a slight moment of improvisation in her position during the sex scene. It wasn’t explicitly planned but remained in the final cut.

The elements are small, but the impact of the improved action can change a scene. However, improvisation doesn’t mean there isn’t still a strict method to the madness.

Are sex scenes choreographed?

Suppose you’re wondering how a sex scene can appear so perfectly choreographed. Well, the short answer is that it’s because it often is.

It’s not uncommon to film a sex scene dozens of times to get it right.

As such, filming erotic scenes becomes like a choreographed dance between the actors themselves but also between the actors, the camera, and the crew.

David Fincher is a director well-known for his meticulous attention to sexual detail (The Social Network, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). Take his 2014 mystery/thriller Gone Girl, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.

According to Neil Patrick Harris, the infamous sex scene between him and Rosamund Pike took three days to film. According to his interview during the Vulture Festival, the entire experience was awkward. It involved thorough rehearsal and multiple takes.

The scene also involves another very intricate movie-magic moment that requires rehearsal, precaution, and precision for authenticity.

SPOILER ALERT: Check out the finished product and see if you can recognize all the required rehearsal moments. (NSFW)

It’s not always the director who controls the scene. In Francis Lee’s Ammonite (2020), actresses Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan choreographed their sex scenes together.

According to Hollywood Reporter, the women worked out their scenes together, mapping out where they would touch each other and the scene’s beats, allowing them and the director to feel more comfortable filming them. 

Winslet took her approach further and served as an intimacy coordinator for a younger actress on her upcoming HBO series Mare of Easttown.

In a recent episode of Intelligence Squared’s award-winning series How I Found My Voice podcast, she described her desire for an intimacy coordinator during the early points of her career.

What is an Intimacy Coordinator?

Sometimes, directors are not comfortable or prepared to coach actors in filming sex scenes. The actors must be in a safe environment. 

An intimacy coordinator is a crew member who works with actors during sex and intimate scenes in theater, film, and television production. This professional ensures everyone involved lives up to the necessary safety precautions.

Intimacy coordinators read the script and discuss the scenes with the director and the actors to get personal space.

Often, an intimacy coordinator will help choreograph the scene before the actual shooting occurs. They talk to the actors about what they’re comfortable with and uncomfortable with and help establish rules and boundaries.

When actors sign their contract for a movie, it often includes a nudity clause, aka nudity rider, that states which parts, if any, of the performer’s body can be exposed in the film.

Fx, the rider may state to show only the side of the breast but not the actor’s areola or nipples. The intimacy coordinator helps make sure that everyone lives up to this contract.

I’ll get back to nudity riders and cover it in more detail later in this article.

Intimacy coordinators also help the director give stage directions to the actors while filming a sex scene. Thus, they’re essential in helping everyone get the desired shots while feeling comfortable.

In that sense, intimacy coordinators are to a sex scene, which is what stunt coordinators are to a stunt scene.

Sex education finally came to the movie industry.

While it’s common for an intimacy coordinator to be on set, there was a time when that wasn’t the case.

Alicia Rodis is probably the world’s first intimacy coordinator, a role she helped create and define with two other acting and movement teachers in 2016.

The newly established set role touched a sore spot in the movie industry and was catapulted to the front of online magazines with the #metoo scandal and movement in 2017.

In an interview with Dailymail.co.uk, Alicia estimates that 90 percent of actors who have done a sex scene have had a traumatic experience.

Probably the most famous of those is Maria Schneider’s and Marlon Brando’s infamous scene involving butter in Bertolucci’s film Last Tango in Paris (1973).

That situation could have been avoided had the movie industry embraced intimate coordinators much sooner.

With the presence of a coordinator, the actors can establish their physical boundaries without repercussion.

Ita O’Brien is a famous intimacy coordinator and film, television, and theatre movement director.

For example, when O’Brien worked on Hulu’s Normal People, she carefully choreographed the scenes so the actors could focus on storytelling and character development. 

Listen to Paul Mescal on how they film scenes to make them feel less awkward.

Now that we have all the foreplay and preparation of sex scenes out of the way, let’s uncover the burning question: are they just pretending?

Simulated vs. Unsimulated sex scenes

There are two types of sex scenes in film and television. The scenes we covered earlier with intimacy coordinators, rehearsals, and choreography are examples of simulated sex scenes. 

Simulated sex scenes appear to the audience as if the actors are having actual sex. I hate to break it to you—most of the time, they’re not. 

Filmmaking uses various tricks to simulate intercourse and other sexual acts on film to protect the actors and do their scenes justice.

However, there are mainstream films where the movie sex scenes are real!

When actors don’t fake it, it’s an unsimulated sex scene. These sex scenes were originally in underground films because of the strict Motion Picture Production Code. 

Unsimulated vigorous sex scenes weren’t mainstream until sex was pushed to its limits after the late 90s with movies like Romance (1999) or Baise-Moi *(2000).

Interested in what other movies contain unsimulated sex scenes? Check out this list on Wikipedia of movies that include explicit sex scenes!

Sex Scenes Take a Long Time to Film

Some sex scenes last less than a few minutes onscreen, but they take hours and sometimes days to film in real life. Everything from makeup, touch-ups, strict direction, and lighting can cause a timely production. 

For example, while filming Love and Other Drugs (2010), actress Anne Hathaway told Entertainment Weekly that she had to have her body makeup consistently touched up during the scene.

The body makeup rubbed off each moment she wore her robe, adding 20 minutes to the production.

For the 2011 romantic comedy Friends With Benefits starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, according to Timberlake during a BBC interview, filming sex scenes could last up to 12 hours.

What is the size of the crew for filming sex scenes?

A sex scene on camera is nothing like the intimacy of a private bedroom. Sex scenes require a lot more than just the director and actors involved. 

However, the number of people on set is limited for the atmosphere and comfortability of the actors.

Most productions have “closed sets,” where only the essential crew is allowed.

A closed set is when “only” around half a dozen crew members watch the action. 

Still, it’s much less than the number of people usually around when filming a scene.

Do actors have to be nude during sex scenes?

You ever watch a sex scene and say to yourself, “I can’t believe [insert actor] went nude for this scene. It’s so graphic!” The trick is they might reveal less than what you see on camera. 

A handful of tricks and movie magic make a sex scene appear to be the real deal. No matter the scene’s significance, there are many ways to avoid revealing the actor’s body.

According to cinematographer Seamus McGarvey of 50 Shades of Grey (2015), actors Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson used multiple methods to keep their privates from popping up on the screen.

Dornan would cover his penis during the sex scenes, which is typical for filming men. Fx, a male actor, can wear a “cock sock,” a small pouch that keeps things in place.

For Johnson, she wore a patch that covered her pubic area, and the pubic hair was added in post-production using special effects.

Dakota Johnson used a butt double because she had a tattoo on her cheek. If you watch the movies, notice how each shot shows the actress’s face and nude body parts simultaneously.

That being said, sometimes actors bear it all. But often, when you see what looks like nude actors, they aren’t nude.

Methods of Sex Scene Movie Magic

So, what’s in the grab bag of creative ways to keep the junk from falling out on screen? Outside of tricky camera angles, here are a few ways sex scenes can get away with anything.

Discreet Coverings

Like the coverings used in 50 Shades of Grey, modesty patches are among the most common methods of covering an actor’s body during sex scenes. 

According to this Glamour magazine article, Michelle Ashford, the creator of Masters of Sex, described modesty patches as “a big Band-Aid that goes from the front, covering their crotch, and then tucks in the back.” The men were a literal tube sock over their penis.

Sex scenes can also use nude-colored underwear, full-body makeup, and other coverings like pillows to keep the illusion of sex on camera.

In an interview with The Sun, Intimacy coordinator Jean Franzblau, who has worked on several TV shows and movies like Deep Water (2022) and Blonde (2022), says she brings nipple covers, ‘hibues’ and ‘shebues’, which are flesh-colored adhesive thongs that fit over the genitals.

She also brings modesty barriers made of yoga matting inserted into actors’ underwear to create a barrier between their genitals. And knee pads if an actor has to spend a lot of time on his or her knees.

Breath Mints, tissues, and hand sanitizers

Another common thing intimacy coordinators often bring to film sets is breath mints. Franzblau says she brings four different kinds of breath mints for those lengthy kissing scenes.

She also brings tissues and hand sanitizers.

Keeping the distance

Sometimes it looks like the actors are closer together than they are. Filming from the right angle with the right lens will look like parts of the actors are touching each other while they aren’t.

This is similar to filming someone taking a hit in a fight scene. If you film one of the actors from the back while he takes a punch, it will look like the other is getting hit, while in reality, they may be two feet apart.

Similar tricks are used when filming sex scenes.

If the director can’t get the perfect shot this way, they – together with trained intimacy coordinators – may rely on all sorts of things to put between the actors instead.

In an interview with popsugar.co.uk, Lizzy Talbot, the intimacy coordinator on the hit show Bridgerton (2020), reveals that the actors used a Pilates ball and a flight memory foam cushion that condensed solid and worked as a pillow between the actors.

Fake Sweat

For a good sex scene to be steamy hot, it must be… well, hot and steamy. But that’s not always the case. So, a makeup artist will add a few extra drops of sweat to the actors’ skin to give them the illusion of beads of sweat.

A sweat spray can consist of a mixture of glycerin and water to make the drops stick longer. However, sometimes, a gel makes the actors’ bodies shine.

A good example is the TV show Normal People (2020), in which Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones are covered in a gel called “Egyptian Magic.”

Prosthetics

Some of the most iconic movie moments in film history involve genitalia, but more often than not– it’s not real. Productions use the original special effects of makeup or prosthetics.

Prosthetics and special effects makeup transform actors or create life-like injuries, old age, or, in this case, genitals.

Male actors might use a dildo as a prop, and females might use a merkin, i.e., an artificial hair covering for the pubic area.

If you want to destroy the illusion and find out which favorite scenes were dummy parts, check out this article from Decider, “11 Crazy Stories Behind Fake Genitals in Movies“.

Body Doubles

Contracts protect actors in any sex scene. The agreement outlines what the actor will and will not do in the film.

Sometimes, the actor will refuse to do nudity, and that’s where body doubles come into the picture. Body doubles are professionals that operate just like a stunt double and stand in for any part of the actor they wish to not portray on screen. 

One of the best examples is the 2013 European erotic art film Nymphomaniac, starring Charlotte Gainsborough. The cast includes big-name actors like Willem Dafoe, Christian Slater, Stellan Skarsgård, and Shia LaBeouf.

However, in most explicit scenes, we see only half of the actual actor’s body. The explicit parts belong to a porno actor or actress, and then the two bodies were composited with CGI, which required a lot of planning in terms of positions beforehand.

Speaking of CGI…

CGI

Sometimes, a body double won’t work because we see the actor’s face during the scene. 

When this occurs, a computer-generated image splices together the actor’s likeness with the body double’s nude body.

A famous example comes from the season five finale of HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones. Lena Headley’s character is entirely nude during an extended scene of her walking through the city.

Editors superimposed Headley’s face on a body double’s naked body for the scene.

Another example is Thor: Love and Thunder, where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is stripped naked in front of all the gods by Zeus (Russell Crowe).

As you can see in the video above, that’s not Chris Hemsworth’s butt you see in the film but a CGI version instead.

Contracts and Nudity Riders

The entertainment-industry labor union, SAG-AFTRA, established the requirement of a nudity rider. The nudity rider is for roles that include “nudity, partial nudity, or simulated sexual acts.”

The nudity rider is part of a contract negotiated between the actors and their representatives, and the production states what the actor would and won’t do on screen.

Despite the nudity rider being a contract, the actors can withdraw anytime before filming the scenes. Nudity riders also protect body doubles.

Unfortunately, in non-union films, actors are not protected by this contract.

Do male actors sometimes get an erection during love scenes?

Yes, it happens from time to time that male actors get an erection when filming a sex scene.

Actors including James McAvoy, Joe Jonas, Henry Cavill, Michael Vartan, and Ewan McGregor admitted to getting aroused while filming a hot sex scene.

Intimacy coordinators discuss this with the actors and how to take a break if the male actor gets an erection while preparing for a sex scene.

And it’s a common thing, especially for the male actor, to worry about.

Conclusion

Now you’re finished, you had your cigarette break, and the mystery is gone. The reality of what goes on set during sex scenes is nothing close to what we see.

Shooting intimate content for films is just as meticulous, choreographed, and uncomfortable as your favorite action sequences. 

We’ve come a long way from the risque visuals of cleavage to full-on, unsimulated intercourse. Either way, it’s all part of the movie magic, and you can celebrate because, knowing what goes down, you went all the way.

Up Next: The best Tinto Brass movies of all time.

Author

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  • Myke Thompson

    Myke Thompson is a freelance writer, screenwriter, and humorist based out of Los Angeles. When he’s not working on his own projects, he supports other artists as a creative manager in music, art, film, and television.

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