If that’s what you’re into, have a binge this Boxing Day
When you’re watching two stars getting it on in a film, you might not always be sure if they’re really getting it on or if it’s a bit of movie magic.
Often, sex scenes use a bit of camera trickery and acting skills to make it look real. Or perhaps the actors opt to have a body double used so they don’t have to be involved in the X-rated bits.
Sometimes though, stars do go the whole hog and have unsimulated sex on screen, with a number of British stars having done so.
And if that’s a bit of film trivia you’re into, then there’s an entire list of films where actors have actual unsimulated sex in them shared on Letterboxd.
The Nymphomaniac films were of course on the list too. (Nordisk Film)
Of course there are some usual culprits that make the list such as the infamous Caligula which had to have so much footage cut out before it was evenr allowed to be shown.
The flick was immediately banned in a number of countries, with Italy seizing film reels of it that entered the country and branding it ‘flagrantly obscene’.
It starred big names of cinema such as Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren and Peter O’Toole and eventually a new version was released that was better received by critics than the original.
The list also features the likes of Antichrist, I Am Curious (Yellow) and Starlet.
It’s got to be said that some of the films included do seem to be adult movies from time gone by, there are some more recent titles like 2008’s Little Ashes with Robert Pattinson. There’s also Dogtooth, It is Fine! Everything is Fine and Stranger by the Lake.
Things have changed since some of the older flicks on the list though (like 1964’s Blow Job, 1973’s Female Vampire and 1972’s Pink Flaming).
The role of intimacy coordinators has only grown in film production, with stars speaking their praise.
Robert Pattinson in Little Ashes. (Regent Releasing)
Nicole Kidman recently spoke out about her part in the film Babygirl, which had ‘radically long takes’ during the (not real) sex scenes.
Intimacy coordinators worked to ‘precisely structure a given sequence’s many twists and turns’, and Kidman said she ‘never came out of it, really’ during filming.
She said while the lengthy filming process often left her feeling ‘ragged’, she still felt ‘incredibly safe’ thanks to the effort that went into the scenes.
Perhaps with such precise coordination and work going into sex scenes there’s not really a need for them to be unsimulated any longer.
If the alternative, which most film shoots like Babygirl use, is enough to look like the real thing then perhaps the movie with unsimulated sex in it is a dying breed. But in some cases, it’s down to the choice of the actor.
There are other dangers to doing it unsimulated as well, as actor Melvin Van Peebles wrote, produced, directed and appeared in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song where he contracted gonorrhoea from a co-star.Featured Image Credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage/Giovanni Giannoni/WWD via Getty Images
Topics: Sex and Relationships, TV and Film
Jess Battison
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Updated 14:14 18 Jan 2024 GMTPublished 14:15 18 Jan 2024 GMT
Legendary British actor regrets making controversial movie with real unsimulated oral sex scene
He said he wished he hadn’t made the film
Among the British actors currently plying their trade on the stage and screen there are some stars who are particularly luminous.
Sir Mark Rylance is certainly one of those, and while it might be a difficult debate to nail down which role is his best, his performance as Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall has certainly got to be up there.
Intimacy (2001) trailer
Credit: Studio Canal
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Fans of the legendary actor will be happy to hear that there will be a follow-up to the 2015 historical drama in the form of Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light.
Sadly we’ll likely have to wait until the end of 2024 or even the beginning of 2025 for it to arrive on our screens but if it’s anything like its predecessor it ought to be well worth the wait.
While audiences likely know him best from the likes of Wolf Hall, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and The BFG, there’s a film he did in 2001 which he has since said he regrets, one that contains a scene involving unsimulated oral sex.
Studio Canal
The film is Intimacy, in which Rylance plays a bartender who has weekly sex with a woman he doesn’t know (Kerry Fox), and then starts to develop feelings for her.
While Intimacy won Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival that year, there was controversy over the unsimulated scene of oral sex, and Rylance himself has said he wishes he hadn’t made it.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal about his critically lauded appearance in Wolf Hall in 2015, Rylance also opened up about the 2001 film.
The WSJ reported that Rylance felt he had been taken advantage of by the film’s director, the late Patrice Chéreau who died in 2013.
Rylance said: “It soured me on my life two months, It’s my mistake, but I felt Patrice put undue pressure on me on set to do that.
Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty Images
“And at that point I didn’t have the confidence as a film actor to say no. Now I think a lot of actors that people say are difficult are actually just being sensible.”
The celebrated actor would give his view on Intimacy again the following year in a web chat for The Guardian.
Replying to a question from a fan who wanted to know Rylance’s view on Intimacy and why he chose to to the movie, the actor wrote: “Intimacy was the most difficult job I’ve ever had.
“Hanif Kureishi’s work and Patrice Chéreau’s words convinced me it was a very true and vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London.
“I know 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. And I wish I hadn’t made it.”Featured Image Credit: Studio Canal/Getty/Karwai Tang/WireImage
Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Joe Harker
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Updated 12:01 20 Jan 2024 GMTPublished 12:02 20 Jan 2024 GMT
Supermodel regrets unsimulated sex scene despite co-star staying ‘as clean as he could’
The scene shocked viewers when it was first released
A supermodel who starred in the controversial movie Brown Bunny says she now wishes the film hadn’t included an unsimulated sex scene.
Cheryl Tiegs featured in the 2003 film which told the story of a professional motorcyclist who travels from New Hampshire to California to race.
The Vincent Gallo movie was released 15 years ago at the Cannes Film Festival, and shocked viewers with a graphic oral sex scene. You can watch the trailer below:
The Brown Bunny trailer
Credit: Sony Pictures
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Tiegs starred as Lily in the movie, and while she only had a kissing scene, actress Chloe Sevigny had an unsimulated oral sex scene with Gallo’s character, Bud.
‘Unsimulated’ sex scenes generally refer to scenes that are performed, rather than simulated.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about how she believes the scene ‘hurt’ the movie, Tiegs revealed how she came to feature in the film, and her feelings on the sex scene at the time.
“I got a message that Vincent wanted to talk to me about a movie. I didn’t call him back right away because I didn’t know who he was,” Tiegs explained.
“But after a month, I called him back, and he told me, ‘If you don’t know who I am, watch Buffalo ’66.’ I was cavalier about it all, pretty much because I’m not an actress. But when I finally saw it, oh, my God, I loved the film so much. I couldn’t get to the phone fast enough.”
Wellspring
Once she was cast in the film, Gallo drove to Tiegs’ summer home in Minnesota, where they filmed her one and only scene ‘in silence’.
“Vincent walked up and we had a casual dialogue, like, ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ We filmed one take, and Vincent said he didn’t want to do that. He wanted to shoot in silence,” she said.
“So, the next take, he comes in, sits down, and we start kissing. All we did all day was kiss. He’s a very good kisser.”
Discussing *that* controversial scene though, Tiegs explained how she wishes it hadn’t been included.
“I feel comfortable [performing oral sex], just not watching someone else do it,” she added.
“I wish he hadn’t included that scene because it might have hurt the film, but I know he doesn’t care. I run into Vincent every once in a while, but it’s been a couple of years. I wish I could talk to him again.”
Toni Anne Barson Archive/Getty Images
Both Sevigny and Gallo have also spoken about the scene in question, with Sevigny believing it was misunderstood.
“I knew people would not understand it,” she told the Associated Press. “When you see the film [Brown Bunny], it makes more sense.
“It’s an art film. It should be playing in museums. It’s like an Andy Warhol movie.”
Meanwhile, Gallo revealed how he prepared for the scene.
“What I did was drink a lot of pineapple juice!” he said at a news conference during the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
“Pineapple juice makes everything taste better, and I tried to stay as clean as I could.”Featured Image Credit: Wellspring
Topics: TV and Film
Lucy Devine
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Updated 14:49 24 Oct 2024 GMT+1Published 18:52 23 Oct 2024 GMT+1
Actor who starred in movie with unsimulated oral scene joked that he ‘drank pineapple juice’ to prepare for it
The 2003 film has a rather controversial scene
An actor who starred in a movie with an unsimulated oral sex scene joked that he ‘drank pineapple juice’ to prepare for it.
Released over two decades ago, The Brown Bunny is still a controversial subject to chat about, thanks to the impact of its steamy content.
Directed, produced, photographed, edited by, and starring Vincent Gallo, the film follows him as a professional motorcycle racer, Bud Clay.
Haunted by the memories of his ex-lover Daisy (Chloë Sevigny), he is trying to get himself back on track while journeying from New Hampshire to California.
The Brown Bunny trailer
Credit: Sony Pictures
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And while the lead meets several women along the way to try and relieve his all-consuming loneliness, he just can’t get Daisy off his mind.
So, this means we get the famous scene when he has somewhat of a reunion with her at a hotel as she performs oral sex on him.
Except this wasn’t just Daisy going down on Bud; it was real for Gallo and Sevigny, as the sex scene was totally unsimulated.
In case you need that spelling out for you, it means the act was genuine and actually done rather than just tricks of the camera, acting and props.
The pair performed the act for real. (Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage)
During a news conference at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival for The Brown Bunny’s release, Gallo revealed how he prepared himself for the big scene.
“What I did was drink a lot of pineapple juice!” he said.
“Pineapple juice makes everything taste better, and I tried to stay as clean as I could.”
Well, I guess his joke showed some consideration for his scene partner having to do the work.
And discussing the controversial choice to do it unsimulated, Sevigny told Playboy Magazine in 2011 she was ‘proud’ of the performance and didn’t have any regrets.
The film came out back in 2003. (Sony Pictures)
The American Psycho star explained: “What’s happened with that is all very complicated. 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?”
Sevigny later admitted she thinks it was her way of ‘reclaiming herself’ after achieving celebrity status as well as ‘wanting to push the envelope’.Featured Image Credit: Wellspring/Dimitrios Kambouris/WireImage
Topics: Sex and Relationships, TV and Film, Film
Jess Battison
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Published 17:10 11 Oct 2024 GMT+1
Andrew Garfield re-enacts what happened in ’embarrassing’ Florence Pugh sex scene where they ‘didn’t hear cut’
“This definitely feels like a longer take than expected”
Spider-Man star Andrew Garfield re-enacted the moment he and co-star Florence Pugh realised they ‘didn’t hear cut’ while filming a passionate sex scene.
Garfield and Pugh will star opposite each other in upcoming romance drama We Live In Time. The pair star as Tobias and Almut, a couple who meet after a chance encounter, whose relationship is documented throughout the course of the film.
Watch the trailer for the film below:
We Live in Time trailer
Credit: A24
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Given the fact that We Live In Time follows the stages of a couple’s relationship, the actors have to get pretty comfortable with one and other in order to film intimate scenes.
However, this led to the pair having a pretty awkward encounter on set, with the actors getting so carried away while filming a passionate sex scene that neither Garfield or Pugh were able to hear the cameraman shout ‘cut’.
Garfield revealed the tidbit during an interview with Josh Horowitz at 92nd Street in New York, where he explained how he and Pugh turned around to see the cameraman and sound operator turned around facing the wall, waiting for them to stop.
Awkward!
The actors play couple Tobias and Almut (A24)
Not content with just telling the story, the Spider-Man actor then went on to re-enact the moment in-front of Horowitz and a live audience.
“It’s pretty funny… and I don’t think Florence would mind,” Garfield said, before divulging how the moment was the first intimate scene they had shot together.
“So anyway, we do this first take of this very intimate, passionate sex scene,” he began, adding that the only people in the room were himself, Pugh, the cameraman and a boom operator.
“The scene becomes passionate as we choreographed it… and we go a little bit further than we’re meant to as we didn’t hear cut and it’s feeling safe.
The actor recreated the moment during an interview (YouTube/Josh Horowitz)
“Then at a certain point both of us kind of feel like we’re telepathically saying to each other ‘this feels like a longer take than expected’.”
He then stands up to recreate the moment he realised the cameras were off – promising a scandalised audience that he wouldn’t ‘gyrate’ – and explains how the crew were stood in the corner with their heads down.
Revealing what his and Pugh’s reaction was to the moment, Garfield continued: “We crack up. We’re like.. ‘you’ve got to say cut louder’.
“Florence was like ‘oh my god this is the most cringe moment of my f**king life’.”Play
Despite being awkward in the moment, Garfield went on to joke how the scene took the ‘curse’ off any of the other intimate moments they had to film.
“It just deepened our comfort,” he added.
We Live In Time is set for release on 1 January 2025 in the UK.