When you’re watching one of your favorite flicks and a steamy scene comes up, the truth is that it’s almost always fake – like movies usually are.
But on the rare occasion where it’s not, actors may have to carry out the acts on screen for real, meaning that you may actually be watching the deed unfold.
While many actors open up on how awkward fake sex scenes can be, a select few have spoken out about the realities of filming a real one.
Normal films will employ intimacy coordinators, get make-up crews to construct modesty garments and more to make the scene believable, but other times, directors or actors may want the act to be real.
The idea of unsimulated sex scenes has sparked debate over the years, but some big names in the industry have tried their hand at it for one reason or another.
So here are six well-known celebrities who have ventured beyond the unknown and stripped for the cameras.
Robert Pattinson
Robert Pattinson is one of the biggest names in Hollywood who participated in an unsimulated sex scene. Credit: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Pattinson may best be known for his roles in The Batman or Twilight, but the British actor gave an unsimulated sex scene a go in a 2008 film, the same year the latter came out.
It was called Little Ashes, and in it, Pattinson played surrealist painter Salvador Dali.
While speaking to Germany’s Interview Magazine, he revealed that he had to self-pleasure on camera, admitting: “I played Salvador Dali and had to do a lot of scenes where I was naked, and I also had to masturbate. I mean really.
“My orgasm face is recorded for eternity.”
He admitted that he couldn’t fake it as “[it] just doesn’t work,” so he did what he needed to do.
Aubrey Plaza
The White Lotus actress has featured in an unsimulated sex scene before. Credit: Raymond Hall / Getty
Parks and Recreation actor Aubrey Plaza said that she had a similar scene in the 2013 film The To-Do List.
In the scene, her character Brandy Klark has a moment of self-pleasure, and Plaza admitted to Conan O’Brien on his talk show that she was confused after seeing the direction in the script.
Apparently, the script said “Brandy masturbates,” and Plaza recalled: “In my head I envisioned a nice scene where you just see my hand slowly go out of frame.
“I thought I was doing one thing and when I showed up it was a whole different thing, it was a full body shot and I asked the director ‘what should I do’ and she said ‘masturbate like it says in the script’.”
Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg’s body doubles
Willem Dafoe, director Lars Von Trier, and actor Charlotte Gainsbourg at the Cannes premiere of Antichrist. Credit: Jean Baptiste Lacroix / FilmMagic / Getty Images
While Dafoe and Gainsbourg didn’t have sex themselves, their body doubles got it on in the 2009 movie Antichrist.
There’s a graphic scene in the movie which leads to the pair’s characters having sex, and the act seen on screen is real.
Dafoe explained why they didn’t do it themselves at the time, saying: “Charlotte and I are both married and I’m not sure everybody would be cool with that.”
Chloë Sevigny and Vincent Gallo
Chloe Sevigny and Vincent Gallo performed the unsimulated sex act. Credit: oni Anne Barson/WireImage/Getty Images
Sevigny and Gallo starred opposite one another in 2003 film The Brown Bunny, another title to feature a real sex scene.
As part of it, Sevigny’s character performed oral sex on Gallo, as Sevigny admitted that what happened was “very complicated.”
Speaking to Playboy in 2010, she said: “There are a lot of emotions. I’ll probably have to go to therapy at some point. But I love Vincent. The film is tragic and beautiful, and I’m proud of it and my performance.
“I’m sad that people think one way of the movie, but what can you do? I’ve done many explicit sex scenes, but I’m not that interested in doing any more.
“I’m more self-aware now and wouldn’t be able to be as free, so why even do it?”
Kerry Fox and Mark Rylance
Kerry Fox and Mark Rylance carried out an intimate act in the film fittingly named Intimacy. Credit: Studio Canal
The pair got steamy while filming Intimacy, due to an unsimulated oral sex act that was carried out.
In fact Rylance said upon reflection, the movie was the “most difficult job” he’d ever taken, due to this scene.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2016, he admitted: “I was convinced it was a vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London.
“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.”
His regret came from the “undue pressure” he felt from director Patrice Chéreau to do the scene, admitting that he didn’t have the confidence at the time to say no.
On the other hand, Fox didn’t regret making the film.
‘Nymphomaniac’ body doubles
The cast of Nymphomaniac. Credit: Luca Teuchmann / Getty
Nymphomaniac featured a number of A-listers, such as Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, and Shia LaBeouf among others.
Louise Vesth, a producer of the film, told The Hollywood Reporter that while there was an odd unsimulated sex scene, body doubles carried the acts out.
This was then digitally edited over the actors, who didn’t do the acts on camera.
“We shot the actors pretending to have sex and then had the body doubles, who really did have sex, and in post (production) we will digital-impose the two,” she explained.
The producer stated: “So above the waist it will be the star and then below the waist it will be the doubles.”
Whatever works, and all that.
