Just because it’s fun to watch doesn’t mean it’s fun to make. It only takes a few minutes to watch your favorite movie scenes, but unless the cast and crew were incredibly lucky, it probably took hours to shoot them.
And while a scene may seem really cool or funny when they start working on it, it’s pretty common for it to lose its magic by around the 50th take. After all, acting can be an amazing, rewarding job, but it’s still a job.
It stands to reason that a particularly steamy sex scene often isn’t going to feel that sexy for the actors. When actors talk about these scenes in interviews, they often describe them more as awkward, uncomfortable or exhausting.
Still, whether these scenes were enjoyable or not, they can still make for some interesting stories.
1. Henry Cavill
Cavill generally feels uncomfortable when he’s naked in a room full of people, and he doesn’t find the physical work of the scene particularly sexy either.
He said “all you’re doing is smacking your nuts against someone, and nothing is going in.”
He added that it’s especially embarrassing if he accidentally shows his “excitement” during a scene, which he considers unacceptable in a professional environment.
2. Lena Dunham
During the first season of Girls, Dunham would wear a “nude patch,” but because it was glued on, it would keep falling off when she got sweaty. Since her male co-stars never cared when they saw her genitalia, Dunham stopped bothering with the nude patch by season two.
3. Kristen Schaal
Right before her sex scene in The Last Man on Earth, Schaal shot another scene where she had to eat a lot of beans. Because the scene involved her laying flat on her stomach on top of co-star Will Forte and yelling a lot, it was inevitable that she would eventually fart on him.
She added that while sharing a sex scene with your co-star is often considered an awkward experience, farting on them is apparently as intimate as it gets.
I guess we’ll have to take her word for it.
4. Nicole Kidman
In the film The Paperboy, Kidman shared a notoriously rough scene with John Cusack. But even though Cusack was all but tossing Kidman around the room “like a mop” and left her with bruises, Nicole asserted that she was fine when asked by director Lee Daniels.
Kidman said she kept mum because she knew Cusack was being rougher than he realized, but she wanted him to feel free and didn’t want to humiliate him.
5. Bradley Cooper
Cooper and his Wet Hot American Summer co-star, Michael Ian Black, agreed before their sex scene that they would wear nothing but tube socks and that the scene would evolve into Black calling Cooper’s character Benjamin because it’s his “Christian name.”
Director David Wain wanted to use the raw audio from the scene, but the sound mixer warned him that it would give the movie an X rating due to the intense moaning and breathing from Cooper and Black.
via Vulture
6. Amy Schumer
Schumer wasn’t concerned about being nude for a film crew as much as appearing vulnerable duringTrainwreck‘s non-comedic sex scenes. As for the physicality of the scenes, she said that given the choice between having a conversation in a diner with a co-star and having them thrust into her thigh, she’d prefer the diner.
Particularly if they served coconut cream pie.
7. Ryan Gosling
The sex scene Gosling shared with Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine was reputedly angry and unusually realistic. Gosling said this scene was difficult because he had to unlearn a lot of what he knows about being an actor.
Usually, actors have to be mindful of their co-star’s light and avoid stepping on their lines, but because real intimacy is messy, all of that went out the window for this scene.
viaIMDb
8. Matt Bomer
Bomer described his love scenes as “surreal,” largely because they often involve trying to have an intimate moment with someone he doesn’t know very well while he’s wearing a sock over his genitals and a guy eating a jelly donut is holding a boom mic up to them.
Still, Bomer added that his scenes with Lady Gaga in American Horror Story work well because of how gracious of an actor she is.
9. Michael Fassbender
Between Shame and A Dangerous Method, Fassbender has a lot of experience getting intimate on film. Yet, he considers it an uncomfortable and stressful experience that it’s best to get over with as quickly as possible.
For him, the key is communication and ensuring that he knows exactly what his co-star is comfortable with before he does anything.
viaIMDb | Fox Searchlight
10. Mindy Kaling
In contrast to most of the actors on this list, Kaling quite enjoys her sex scenes. She considers “crawling around in bed” with people one of the most cozy and intimate ways to get to know them better.
And as for being watched by about 50 people while it’s going on, her attitude is “the more, the merrier.”
11. Diane Farr
The veteran actress has a detailed rundown of how onscreen intercourse works in this piece for Esquire, but a standout fact is the timing for the climax is dictated by the director.
She also reported having a giant light frequently pointed at her crotch during rehearsal, which isn’t quite what we have in mind when we think of a hot love scene.
Hamm compared shooting a love scene to running in the rain in that it’s uncomfortable at first but you learn to enjoy it as you go along. He felt awkward about bouncing on Kristen Wiig in a flesh-colored thong during their scene in Bridesmaids, but that was partly because we was worried he was hurting her.
So once they worked out that she could punch him in the side if he was, things went fairly smoothly.
