On screen, it looks effortless and perfectly choreographed.
Off-screen, it includes broken ribs, way too much sweat, and directors yelling: "Have an org*sm."
Several ofHollywood's biggest starshave spoken about what it takes to film hot and heavy scenes that make viewers swoon.
One actress said she had her skimpy undergarments superglued for one scene. Another said she wound up filming some sort of "creepy home p*rn movie" with her co-star.
Nicole Kidman even said she once climaxed so many times while filming one particular movie that she felt "burnout."
These brutally honest confessions might change how you see steamy film scenes forever.
Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh were so locked in into a love scene that they didn't even hear the camera operator saying "cut."In a 2024 interview, Garfield shared an awkward moment that took place during the filming of his movieWe Live in Timewith Pugh.He joked about how things escalated to a point where cinematographer Stuart Bentley and their boom operator on set had to turn away from them."We were doing the first take of this very intimate, passionate scene and it's a closed set which means it's only me and Florence and the camera operator who's a lovely man called Stuart," he said. "And he's very polite and very sweet and gentle. The director's in another room next door."The Golden Globe winner, who plays the character Tobias opposite Pugh's Almut in the romantic drama, said they were filming the scene and it became "passionate," just as they "choreographed it.""We get into it as it were, and we go a little bit further than we were meant to because we didn't hear 'cut' and it's feeling safe. And we're just kinda like, 'Ok, we'll just go into the next thing, we'll let this progress, and we'll just carry on.'"TheAmazing Spider-Manstar said he and Florence eventually realized that the filming was taking longer than expected."At a certain point, both of us, we're both kind of telepathically saying to each other, 'This definitely feels like a longer take.' … I look up, and in the corner is Stuart and our boom operator. Stuart has the camera by his side and he's turned into the wall," the actor recalled.
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Dakota Johnson admitted that filming one of Hollywood's steamiest thrillers was "not fun."Even after filming three installments of50 Shades,the actress said that filming the steamy scenes with costar Jamie Dornan were "never easy.""It's not casual and it's not fun," she toldMarie Clairein 2018.What made things difficult for her was having skimpy undergarmentssuperglued to her body."I had these sort of strapless thongs that had glue on them. It's not glue, but it's sticky," she told the outlet."They're, like, basically if it were a n*pple pastie, but underwear. But it's only sticky at the top, it's not sticky the whole way," she went on to say. "It would also come off because the adhesive would wear out, so then they would superglue it to my body so that it wouldn't fall off. And I would wear two of them."She said it was "not painful" and called it "barely anything.""But I guess you have some sense of being covered," she added. "It's f***ing bizarre," she added.TheMaterialistsactress said the hardest scene was from part 3 of the franchise,50 Shades Freed,where she was blindfolded and "handcuffed with [her] arms and legs to the gate.""It was kind of shocking, because I didn't realize that no matter how prepared or rehearsed I was, when your senses are taken away like that, you can't control the way your nervous system will react," she said. "So, it was really tricky to navigate that scene. It was kind of difficult."
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Emilia Clarke said she had "no idea" what she was doing while filming her risqué scenes on theGame of Thrones."I've been on a film set twice before then, and now I'm on a film set, completely nak*d, with all of these people — and I don't know what I'm meant to do, and I don't know what's expected of me, and I don't know what you want, and I don't know what I want," shesaidon Dax Shepard'sArmchair Expertpodcast in 2019.The actress, who played Daenerys Targaryen on the show, praised her co-star Jason Momoa for the way he "took care" of her during the scenes."He really, really — in an environment where I didn't know I needed to be taken care of. It's only now that I realize how fortunate I was with that," she said, noting that Momoa had experience and had done "a bunch of stuff" before taking the role of her on-screen husband Khal Drogo."He was like, 'Sweetie, this is how it's meant to be, and this is how it's not meant to be, and I'm gonna make sure that that's the f***ing case,'" she continued.More recently, Clarke starred in the spy thrillerPoniesthat released this year. And she spoke about breaking a rib while filming a scene as the character Bea."Three men, in a number of hours," she toldThe Wrap. "Just keep bringing it — I'm going to sit on this thing, you're going to bring them in, we're going to pretend to have s*x. I broke a rib that day.""She really did," her co-star Haley Lu Richardson offered as confirmation. "She's such a tiny little sensitive body, meant she broke a rib."Clarke said her rib didn't "fully break" but "popped out a little bit." But that didn't save her from having an awkward conversation with her doctor."S*x! Times three!" she was forced to explain.
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It was Margot Robbie's idea to wear absolutely nothing in one of the most memorable scenes in her big-screen Hollywood breakout film theWolf of Wall Street.Director Martin Scorsese said she could wear a robe while her character Naomi Lapaglia seduces Leonardo DiCaprio's character of a wealthy stockbroker named Jordan Belfort."The whole point of Naomi is that her body is her only form of currency in this world," she toldThe Telegraphin 2014."So when Marty was trying to help me out, and said in the scene where she seduces Jordan, perhaps I could have a robe on, I said she wouldn't. She has to be nak*d. She's laying her cards on the table," the actress said.TheWuthering Heightsstar confessed filming the intimate scenes with one of the most recognizable faces in the world was the "least romantic thing to shoot."One occasion left her so mortified that she wasn't sure if DiCaprio would be okay with her telling the story to the world."We'd just finished this scene and Leo always carries an e-cig*rette with him, like all the time," she said onThe Talk.TheTitanicstar had it hiding under a pillow during the scene's filming, she said."Afterwards he's like, 'Where is it? Where did I put it? I had it right here,'" she continued. "I was looking around with him - both still sitting in this bed - and then I went, 'Oh, um, it's literally, like, in my b*tt crack. I'm sitting on it. I am so sorry.'"
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Gwyneth Paltrow was refreshingly frank about filming several intimate scenes with herMarty Supremeco-star Timothée Chalamet, who is nearly 25 years younger than her."I was like, 'Okay, great. I'm 109 years old. You're 14," she toldVanity Fairlast year. "We have a lot of s*x in this movie."The Hollywood veteran, who won an Oscar all the way back in the 1990s, said she was surprised by the new-age concept of anintimacy coordinator onset."I was like, 'Girl, I'm from the era where you get nak*d, you get in bed, the camera's on," Gwyneth told the outlet. "We said, 'I think we're good. You can step a little bit back.'"She said she once pushed back with the intimacy coordinator onMarty Supreme'sset over the choreography of a scene."I don't know how it is for kids who are starting out, but… if someone is like, 'Okay, and then he's going to put his hand here,' I would feel, as an artist, very stifled by that," she continued.TheContagionstar also praised Chalamet for being "very polite" and a "fun partner" while playing the role of Kay to his Marty in the sports drama.Paltrow chose the word "palatable" to describe the outcome of her intimate scenes with theDunestar."When we were doing it, there was a lot of rolling around [but] it's actually quite… palatable," she toldBritish Voguein October.The ranchy scenes "accomplished exactly what it was there to do. I would say that the nature of the relationship between Kay and Marty is very transactional," she added. "It's quite cold. It's not a romance, it's like a transaction, basically."
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Heated Rivalryquickly became a hot favorite among fans. Yet, some people had a problem with its portrayal of the steamy gay hockey romance between Shane Hollander (played by Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (played by Connor Storrie).I Love LAstar Jordan Firstman particularly had an issue with it and toldVulture,"I'm sorry, I watched those first two episodes ofHeated Rivalry, and it's just not gay. It's not how gay people f***. There's so few things that actually show gay s*x."Firstman compared the show's love-making scenes with those inI Love LAand said a "straight guy" couldn't write the ones in the latter, even thoughHeated Rivalrywas written and directed by They don't know what the camaraderie of gay s*x is. So, yeah, I think I definitely led the charge with that."They don't know what the camaraderie of gay s*x is. So, yeah, I think I definitely led the charge with that," he said while praising the scenes inI Love LA.François Arnaud, who plays hockey player Scott Hunter inHeated Rivarlry,came to the show's defense and asked, "Is there only one way to have 'authentic' gay s*x on TV?""Should the s*x that closeted hockey players have look like the s*x that sceney LA gay guys have?" he asked on social media.Heated Rivalrystars Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie not only have fiery chemistry onscreen but are also extremely close in real life.Williams even stayed at his co-star's LA apartment when they were doing press events together in the city."We were like, 'Oh, my God, if people saw us just getting ready in the morning, giving each other big spooning hugs, just to say we're proud of each other,' people would be going crazy," Williams toldVariety."If only one fan had access, God forbid. But yeah, we just love each other very dearly," he added.
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Jennifer Lawrence said herD*e My Loveco-star Robert Pattinson didn't give her the kind of "punishment" other male actors gave her while filming a raunchy love scene.Thetwo played a married couplewho share a whirlwind romance before Lawrence's character descends into psychosis after the birth of their child."It was actually easier that way because Rob and I did not know each other, which is kind of better, you know?," Lawrence explained in an interview with Josh Horowitz at 92NY in January,She said it was different from her experience in theHunger Gamesseries, in which she shared the scene with her friend Josh Hutcherson."Like inHunger Games, like me and Josh Hutcherson would have to kiss and that's like… Imagine it," she continued. "You know, it's weirder and so yeah, doing it with a stranger is preferable."The Oscar-winning actress said they didn't need an intimacy coordinator because of how comfortable they were with each other."On our first day of sho*ting, we were nak**, attacking each other like tigers," she joked toBrut Magazineearlier this year."You think you can't get more embarrassed and then they're like, 'Now do it nak**,'" Robert quipped.In aLas Culturistaspodcast episode that dropped on November 5, Lawrence praised theTwilightstar for not being "pervy" like other actors while filming intimate scenes."He's not pervy and he's very in love with [partner] Suki [Waterhouse]," she continued. "We mostly were talking about our kids and relationships so there wasn't any weird, like, 'Does he think I like him?'""If there was a little bit of that I would probably have an intimacy coordinator," she added. "A lot of male actors get offended if you don't want to f*** them, and then the punishment starts. But he was not like that, for the record."
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Daniel Radcliffe spoke about director John Krokidas yelling orders at him and his co-star while filming intimate scenes for the filmK*ll Your Darlings?"I was doing a gay s*x scene and the director was giving step-by-step instructions," he said onThe Graham Norton Showin 2013."And the favorite note I have ever had was when we were kissing and the director shouted, 'Not like that. Crazy s*x kissing!'" he continued.The movie is set in 1944 and tells the story of a the late gay Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, played by theHarry Potterstar.Radcliffe believed filming the scene cemented his detachment from afranchise made for children."I spent 10 years in a kids' franchise and that was definitely a moment of, 'Yes, I think I'm moving on,'" he added.The British actor spoke about filming man-on-man action, calling it "something new.""But you know what, we sh*t that whole scene in maybe an hour and a half so it was incredibly fast-paced. I didn't really have time to stop to think and worry about it," he toldE! News.He also said the director was "very helpful" in "furnishing" a lot of "graphic detail of what [he] would be experiencing at the various stages."The director had also asked his own friend to play the sailor that Radcliffe's character sleeps with and ensured they hung out onset and got to know each other."I think [that's] important when you're doing a scene so intimate," said the actor. "You have to feel like you're both in it together."
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Kate Winslet didn't justactin one of the most-talked-about same-s*x love scenes in cinema, she helpedchoreographit.Her filmAmmoniteexplored the forbidden romance between real-life fossil hunter Mary Anning (played by Winslet) and a married woman (played by Saoirse Ronan)"Saoirse and I choreographed the scene ourselves," the actress toldThe Hollywood Reporterin 2020."It's definitely not like eating a sandwich. I just think Saoirse and I, we just felt really safe," she said before recalling how director Francis Lee-helmed was "naturally very nervous" about it."I just said to him, 'Listen, let us work it out.' And we did," she said. "'We'll start here. We'll do this with the kissing, b**bs, you go down there, then you do this, then you climb up here.'"I mean, we marked out the beats of the scene so that we were anchored in something that just supported the narrative," she added.Admitting she felt "by far the least self-conscious," she added: "I felt the proudest I've ever felt doing a love scene onAmmonite."
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Liam Neeson, 73, said he found it weird to work with an intimacy coordinator on the set ofThe Nak*d G*n."There's a threes*me," he said onThe Late Show with Stephen Colbertin July. "And one of the participants is very cold."He said it was "a little bit strange" to have the intimacy coordinator working with him and his co-star Pamela Anderson."Telling you how to do it?" Colbert asked."Pamela and I knew…," theTakenstar said.When the talk show asked if he and Anderson knew "how to bring in a third" into the scene, he said: "No. That was a first.""That had to be specifically choreographed," he quipped.
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"S*x is an important part of our lives and is still, a lot of times, taboo, and it shouldn't be," Nicole Kidman rightly said while responding toVogueabout why she was drawn to provocative roles in films.The opening scene of her 2024 movieBabygirlsaw her character fake an org*sm with her onscreen husband (played by Antonio Banderas). Her character goes on to have aforbidden relationship with a k*nky young intern(played by Harris Dickinson), who gives her orders such as getting down on all fours and lapping milk from a saucer.TheEyes Wide Shutstar admitted the steamy scenes were too much for her to handle at times."There was an enormous amount of sharing and trust and then frustration," she said in aninterview. "It's like, 'Don't touch me.'"Kidman claimed she had climaxed so much she almost felt like it was a "burnout.""There were times when we were sho*ting where I was like, 'I don't want to org*sm any more,'" she said. "I don't care if I am never touched again in my life! I'm over it. It was so present all the time for me that it was almost like a burnout."
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Kristen Bell spoke about how her love scene with Adam Brody inHouse of Liesinvolved a third party who wasn't part of the script.She explained on theKelly Clarkson Showlast year that she was eight and a half months pregnant when Brody played her love interest on the show."I was eight and a half months pregnant and we were blurring it out," she told the singer and talk show host. "And Adam affectionately refers to it as 'our threes*me,' which I do not want my daughter to hear!"She said Brody had a way of making her feel "safe and comfortable," especially while filming bedroom scenes."I had worked with Adam before that on a movie calledSome Girl(s), and we have sort of similar friend groups... He's a delightful scene partner, I love and trust him as an individual so much," she said.The actress said she enjoyed seeing Brody bring something "weird andawkward and funny and wonderfuland unexpected" to their scenes."But I also trust him completely," she continued. "So to be honest, when I was this much pregnant and I had to, like, mount him, I was just like, 'Well…morning!'"More recently, Bell and Brody starred alongside each other in Netflix's romantic seriesNobody Wants This.Bell said they act like siblings in real life and are constantly arguing."We get along really well, but we also argue like crazy. He has a different POV and I like to poke at it…and also I'm really nosy," she said.
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Robert Pattinson confessed he was sweating like a "crazy person" while filming a passion-heavy scene with Julianne Moore forMaps to the Stars(2014)."I remember seeing Juliette before we started sho*ting the scene," he said.The actor recalled how the veteran actress was giving him advice about choosing "classy projects and "filming intelligent films.""And suddenly, David says 'Action!' and we start f***ing like beasts in the car. Very classy, that's right," he said.Matters grew worse for Pattinson, to the point where Moore wondered if he was having a panic attack."On top of that, it was boiling hot. I was sweating like crazy and huge drops of sweat were running down my forehead. I asked myself if I wasn't having a heart attack," he said. "Every time a drop was falling, I was trying to stop it from ending up on Julianne's back.""It was ridiculous," he continued. "After a while she turned back in my direction, worried and asked me: 'Are you okay? Are you having a panic attack?' I was out of breath, completely drenched, meanwhile her, not at all."
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Director Paul Feig said it was always "uncofmrtable" for him to film a love scene.So while directing Sydney Sweeney and Brandon Sklenar inThe Housemaid, he said he approached it like he was handling a stunt scene."A s*x scene if you will, is always uncomfortable for me. But we had a great intimacy coordinator," he toldCinema Blendlast December."So that was challenging more than anything. But they were so great," he said.Feig said the actors were "so comfortable" and "cool with it" while he was the "old hung up guy in the room.""But by the end of sho*ting, you're just yelling, you know, 'Have an org*sm!'" he said.While speaking toThe Times,Feig admitted there wouldn't be anyone "more uncomfortable" than him onset when they have an intimate scene to shoot. But he noted that Sweeney and Sklenar were the opposite."Syd and Brandon are so body positive that they thought it was hilarious that I was so uncomfortable. She's very proud of how she looks, and you should be," Feig said."There are so many people I've encountered where you're fighting against their insecurity. She would say, 'Ilove women's bodies,' and that's so healthy," he added.
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Alison Brie and Dave Franco said they didn't need an intimacy coordinator to film their bedroom scenes for their movieTogether,released last year."As a couple, we didn't need an intimacy coordinator," Franco toldThe Timeslast August. "We've been together almost 15 years; we know what we're doing and we're pretty comfortable with it."The married couple, who have been married for nearly a decade, said there were "some parallels" between their offscreen relationship and what they should onscreen in the movie."We play a couple who have a solid history together," Brie said during the interview."The film alsoinvolves lots of intimate scenes, which was kind of weird," she continued. "Doing what we had to do in front of a hundred people was a new experience."Brie also said Franco isn't the type to get jealous, even if he's directing a scene that involves her getting intimate with another actor."Dave has directed me in other movies, other s*xual scenes," she said."Was he jealous? Not at all. InThe Rentalwith Dan Stevens he kept saying, 'This has got to look authentic,'" she recalled."I guess that's the great thing about us both being actors," she added. "We understand the separation of real emotion and something you're doing at work."
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Rosamund Pike has recorded what she described as some sort of "creepy home p*rn movie" with Neil Patrick Harris. Or something like that.The actress spoke about filming intimate scenes with Harris for their hit thrillerGone Girl."It's a very odd experience," she said on theLate Night with Seth Meyersshow in 2014.She said the film's director David Fincher asked them to rehearse the scene, all by themselves, for two hours before actually getting in front of the camera."When you're actually sho*ting it, and you've got a whole crew around you, it's remarkably normal. However, the odd thing that David asked us to do was rehearse this scene for two hours alone on an empty sound-stage, just Neil and myself," she told the talk show host. "And that is when it feels highly inappropriate.""You are alone with a man who's not your husband, who also has a husband," she joked. "He's in his underwear. You're in your underwear. And you're sort of dry-h*mping on a bed. And no one's there."Pike said that at some point during their between-the-sheets endeavor, they said they should be "profesh" about this and "probably film it on an iPhone and sort of see how it looks."Then "we watched this thing back and it looks like we're making some sort of super creepy home p*rn movie," she said with a laugh.Director David Fincher spoke aboutfilming the violent scenewhere Pike's character (Amy Dunne) seductively lures Harris' character (Desi Collings) into bed and then slashes his throat.Fincher noted that they filmed the scene 36 times and had "36 sheets, 450 gallons of blood and 36 pairs of underpants" on hand."I told them to rehearse it for three days," he toldVarietyin 2015, "as we're pumping five gallons of blood out of Desi's throat."Pike said it was challenging to film the scenes because Fincher was recording "five to six hours of footage of footage a day, and over a hundred days sho*ting.""I spent more time in front of the camera on that film than in my entire career to date," she told the outlet.
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Peter Sarsgaard once joked that every couple should try directing each other in the bedroom. With others.The actor, who has been married to wife Maggie Gyllenhaal since 2009, said starring in a steamy love scene in her directorial debutThe Lost Daughter"helped" their marriage."I've been recommending this to absolutely everyone," Sarsgaard said about being directed by his wife for his intimate scene with co-star Jessie Buckley."I don't think there's any relationship that wouldn't be helped by it!" he toldNME. "The nice thing about it is seeing someone else adore your spouse.""The way that these two characters connect is not just about s*x, it's about the mind," he added. "That's really gratifying."In the same interview, he spoke about how he once saw an actor kiss Gyllenhaal and had serious issues with it."It drove me crazy, because he had his hand in his pocket," explains a disbelieving," said the flabbergasted husband, daughters Ramona and Gloria Ray with Gyllenhaal."I was like: 'That's my wife' and he had his hand in his pocket, like he was looking for his keys while he was kissing her!" he added. "This woman is incredible, show it!"
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Yerin Ha said it was "so awkward" filming steamy scenes forBridgerton."It's terrible. And it's like 9 a.m. and you're still half asleep and they're like 'alright robes off, get nak*d," she toldAP News."And you're like great! But when you have an actor that you trust like Luke it's really quite easy," she added. "It's really just an extension of the emotions."Luke Thompson (who plays Benedict Bridgerton) said he and Yerin (who plays Sophie Baek) kept falling ill, which kept getting in the way of them filming their steamy scenes."What we actually did is we both got ill," Thompson toldE! News. "But different scenes. We kept falling ill!"Ha joked about them falling sick, saying it "tells us we were very mentally a little bit weak, a little bit nervous, my immune system was down" for their passionate onscreen moments.
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Lina Esco said filming bedroom scenes with Ben Affleck forThe Ripmostly led to them being goofy and "dorking around.""We were giggling," Esco toldPeoplein 2026. "We were just two dorks, dorking around."Calling Affleck a sweet and easygoing" man, she said, "it's just easy.""Sometimes you don't run into people that are easy, and I can honestly say it just felt [like an] easygoing set energy, which is very rare," she said.
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Ryan Guzman admitted he may have added too much adrenaline to his steamy scene with co-star Jennifer Lopez inThe Boy Next Door."It was right before we get into the very, very steamy part of the film," he toldPeoplein 2015."My character has to pick up Jennifer – and me being stupid – I put a little bit too much oomph into it," she continued.His enthusiasm launched her straight into the ceiling."Let's just say that the next couple takes, I was very, very gentle," he recalled. "She was a trooper.""She hit her head, she came right back down, and she said, 'Hey, I'm light. Just take it easy. You don't need to muscle up,'" he said.Despite some inevitable bloopers, Guzman said his family was mighty impressed by his performance."My dad went into a theater full of all my friends and family back home in Sacramento," he said. "Right around that part in the movie, he decided to get up and yell out, 'That's my boy!'"
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On screen, it looks effortless and perfectly choreographed. Off-screen, it includes broken ribs, way too much...
