If you’ve been living under a rock, then I’m here to tell you Heated Rivalry (based on the book series Game Changers) is one of the best shows that’s hit our screens in a long, long time. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve seen a lot of the show’s spicy sex scenes between Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya (Connor Storrie) on your timeline, or maybe it’s just my miraculous algorithm. But I digress, because there’s so much more to the sex scenes than meets the eye, according to Heated Rivalry‘s intimacy coordinator Chala Hunter.
Chala Hunter revealed to Elle that accurate queer representation was the most important thing to capture while filming sex scenes between Shane (Hudson Williams) and Ilya (Connor Storrie). “The scenes are written very specifically as they are in the book, and [writer, creator, and director Jacob Tierney] laid out the action in the script. Portraying queer joy and queer sex and not insinuating or implying it on screen is rare,” she said. “The sex is such a big part of the emotional, physical, and psychological journey that these characters go through.”
And when it came to Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie filming oral sex scenes, Chala Hunter had a bunch of props to make it seem real. “I had a huge kit of all kinds of pasties and intimacy garments. I also have different layers of thickness if we need to add more padding for an actor’s comfort, for the action to take place,” she said. “It might look like Hudson is rubbing his face in Connor’s crotch, but some of the time, he’s anchoring his forehead to just above Connor’s crotch.”
Writer/director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl explores a married woman’s sexual desires with a coworker in a way never seen before on screen. Romy (Nicole Kidman) goes on a sexual journey of dominant vs. submissive roles with Samuel (Harris Dickinson), which Kidman said was intense to film at times. “It left me ragged. At some point, I was like, ‘I don’t want to be touched,'” she confessed to Vanity Fair. “I don’t want to do this anymore, but at the same time, I was compelled to do it.”
Even though Nicole Kidman felt safe with intimacy coordinators and Halina Reijn on set, she was also in a very vulnerable place: “It’s like, golly, I’m doing this, and it’s actually now going to be seen by the world. That’s a very weird feeling. This is something you do and hide in your home videos. It is not a thing that normally is going to be seen by the world.”
There are so. many. titillating sex scenes from Honey Don’t! that I don’t even know where to start. But the best behind-the-scenes story is about my favorite one: when Honey (Margaret Qualley) and MG Falcone (Aubrey Plaza) are at the bar. Qualley revealed the secret trick they used to make the sex act realistic: “There’s someone from the props department on their knees holding a jar of coconut oil,” she said. “Aubrey’s got to lift her finger up and have it be wet. It was playing with different levels of how far you get in that setting and trying to work out the physicality there to make sure that I was saying what we were trying to say, but it was really funny.”
Their sexual chemistry was palpable, and gave queer audiences the ultimate feeling of satisfaction (at least for me!). “I don’t know anyone that doesn’t just love [Aubrey Plaza], and I’ve loved her from afar for such a long time,” Margaret Qualley revealed on working with Plaza. “Getting to work with her was such a dream.”
4.
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan: Ammonite (2020)
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter in August 2020, Kate Winslet shared what it was like to film ~that~ intimate sex scene with her costar, Saoirse Ronan. Winslet said, “Saoirse and I choreographed the scene ourselves. It’s definitely not like eating a sandwich. [Our director] was naturally very nervous, and I said to him, ‘Listen — let us work it out.’ And we did.”
Kate Winslet went into detail about how she and Saoirse Ronan planned out every beat for this beautifully moving sex scene: “‘We’ll do this with the kissing, boobs, you go down there, then you do this, then you climb up here.’ We marked out the beats of the scene so that we were anchored in something that just supported the narrative.” She revealed that she purposefully moved the shooting day to Ronan’s 26th birthday so that she’d have “a great memory in her film life, regardless of how the scene played out” because “the experience would be very equal” between the two actors.
5.
Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley: Bridgerton (2020–present)
It’s no surprise that the best part of Bridgerton Season 2 was the lead-up to Anthony’s (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate’s (Simone Ashley) consummation. They teased fans with *so much* yearning, stolen glances, and light hand-holding throughout the season. When it came down to filming Episode 7, Jonathan Bailey described the technicalities behind his sex scene with Simone Ashley. They were given consent forms, which made for a comfortable environment: “No one went into a scene quaking, worrying about how it’d go,” he said. “If you’re concerned, you can talk to them [about] which bit of skin we are going to show in each scene, and where we will be touched and how.”
Lizzy Talbot, Bridgerton‘s intimacy coach, told Insider, “[We spent] two days on Episode 7, so you can imagine there was a bunch more [sex] in it! There are always sex scenes that don’t make the final edit.”
6.
Jennifer Lopez and Ryan Guzman: The Boy Next Door (2015)
The steamy sex scene, which has 538 MILLION views on YouTube, has gained so much popularity for a reason. Jennifer Lopez and Ryan Guzman, who didn’t use body doubles, brought their A-game when filming their wild sex scene. “My character has to pick up Jennifer, and me being stupid, I put a little bit too much oomph into it,” Guzman said. “The next couple of takes, I was very, very gentle. 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.'”
Jennifer Lopez shared a similar perspective as Ryan Guzman when filming their sex scene, ultimately feeling “embarrassed.” But she revealed that as an actor, it’s “your job” to “make it believable.” In a 2015 interview with E!, Lopez confessed, “It was intense. Those scenes are embarrassing. And this movie in particular, with these two characters, the whole movie hinges on if that scene was believable. If it was enough to make this guy go insane.”
7.
Sebastian Stan and Lily James: Pam & Tommy (2022)
In one of the most talked-about TV shows from 2022, Sebastian Stan and Lily James portrayed ’90s couple Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson. From his full-body tattoos to his Mötley Crüe drumming skills, Stan was committed to portraying Lee honestly, especially when it came to his sex life.
Pam & Tommy creator, Robert Siegel, revealed to Variety that the scene where Sebastian Stan (Lee) talks to his penis in the mirror directly came from Lee’s memoir Tommyland. “I was simply adapting a chapter from his memoir. I think it might be a first [for television]. There was gentle pushback, because you’ve got to push back a little when a talking penis is presented to you, but Hulu was extremely supportive.”
There were four puppeteers “working with an animatronic penis” on set, which didn’t intimidate Sebastian Stan’s approach to acting: “By the end of it, I treated it like it was an intimate buddy conversation that one might have when they’re falling in love.”
8.
Angela Bassett and Lady Gaga: American Horror Story: Hotel (2015)
When Lady Gaga made her debut in the American Horror Story world, she did so with grace, intelligence, and, most of all, magnetic sexual energy. In E3 of AHS: Hotel, Angela Bassett (Ramona Royale) and Gaga (the Countess) filmed a sex scene that I personally can’t get out of my head. When Meredith Vieira asked Bassett what it was like to be intimate with Gaga, she said, “We get to the set, and by now you can’t be tentative — if you said you’re gonna do this, you gotta just dive right in. [We finished], and [Gaga] walked off and said, ‘I think I’m pregnant. I’m about to have Angela Bassett’s baby!'”
Angela Bassett also recounted a party for the cast that Lady Gaga threw at her house before filming began on AHS: Hotel. “I’ve read the script, and I’m a little bit nervous,” Bassett told Meredith Vieira. “[Gaga] comes up [to me], ‘Hey! Are you nervous?’ and I said, ‘Yes, absolutely!’ And she was like, ‘Don’t be.'”
9.
Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton: Monster’s Ball (2001)
Halle Berry made history when she became the first Black woman to win a Best Actress Oscar in 2002 for her role as Leticia Musgrove in Monster’s Ball. If you haven’t seen this film, you’ve probably heard about it not only for Berry’s groundbreaking performance but because of the steamy sex scene between her and Billy Bob Thornton.
In a 2020 interview with Variety, Halle Berry revealed how her team didn’t want her to take the role and thought filming the sex scene with Billy Bob Thornton would ruin her career. “[The love scene] was explicit in the minds of some people, and I was getting paid nothing. They thought if you’re going to do something like that, get a shitload of money.” But after ignoring her team, Berry focused on the integrity of her character, and the meaning behind filming her sex scene with Thornton: “[Money’s] not why I’m doing it. I didn’t feel it was exploitative. It was necessary for the character.”
10.
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara: Carol (2015)
Carol was released in 2015 to critical acclaim and sparked a big conversation on the importance of telling celebratory love stories between women. While promoting the movie, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara were constantly asked how they developed their onscreen chemistry, especially in their sex scenes. At BFI London’s Film Festival, Mara said, “It was easy for me to feel chemistry towards Cate [because] my character spent much of the film in awe of this woman and enamored with her. That was easy for me to embody.”
The second sex scene in the film between Cate Blanchett (Carol) and Rooney Mara (Therese) was one of the first scenes the actors shot together. Blanchett revealed in a Q&A that once they got on set, they learned there were bed bugs in the hotel room, so initially, it was a difficult day shooting in the nude. But, ultimately, Blanchett thought it was a moving experience: “The consummation of their relationship is really important,” Blanchett told BFI London. “We talked about the scene, and there’s a great sense of trust between Rooney and me.”
Cate Blanchett went on to describe how powerful it was to film the sex scene with Rooney Mara, given how isolated their characters were in the film leading up to that moment. She said, “They go through a lot of processing these volcanic feelings independent of one another, so frankly, it was a relief to do these scenes with Rooney. It’s like, ‘Finally, we get to be together.'”
11.
Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith: Queen & Slim (2019)
While promoting Queen & Slim in 2020, Daniel Kaluuya gave an interview to Marie Claire and discussed shooting with Jodie Turner-Smith on a closed set. He felt lucky he “had someone like Jodie who is so cool, chill, and really caring in the moment.” Kaluuya went into further detail about the intimacy and meaning behind Queen and Slim’s first time in the car, saying, “We had to treat it like any other scene, and sex is the language and dialogue of that scene. If we’re not telling the story, then it’s just indulgent and showing people ‘having it off.'”
In a joint interview for Extra, Jodie Turner-Smith felt proud to have filmed this intimate moment with Daniel Kaluuya because of how it juxtaposed with the intense plot, and for that, it spoke “to the Black experience.” And after joking around that they had to stop shooting because her leg was stuck in the car dashboard, Turner-Smith explained the importance of this particular scene. “I felt proud of it — as a Black woman, you’re often depicted in this animalistic and hyper-sexual way, [but] it was just so gentle and elegant.”
12.
Taraji P. Henson and Michael Ealy: Think Like a Man (2012)
If you’ve ever seen or heard of Think Like a Man, you know it’s a classic 2010s movie filled with an incredibly stacked cast, featuring Taraji P. Henson, Gabrielle Union, Regina Hall, and Michael Ealy. And, if you’ve ever seen the movie, you’re probably familiar with the memorable sex scene between Taraji P. Henson and Michael Ealy because…well, it’s something.
While promoting the rom-com on Sway in the Morning in 2012, Taraji P. Henson described how excited she was to work with Michael Ealy, and how they shot their sex scene early in production. She told Sway: “The first day on set was the scene where he’s putting chocolate on my thigh — that was the first day! [And] he licked it off. I was like, ‘I need another take!'”
Taraji P. Henson revealed how professional Michael Ealy was while filming the scene, despite the pressure that their first scene together was a sex scene. “He asked, ‘What’s off limits? What can I touch, what can we not do?’ and I was like, ‘You know what, go for it‘ (in the most professional way possible).” And those Michael Ealy kisses, you know, love, and have watched on YouTube at least 50 times? “We were kissing for real,” Henson said. “Real kisses.”
13.
Florence Pugh and Harry Styles: Don’t Worry Darling (2022)
Don’t Worry Darling focuses on the US nuclear family in the ’50s, the dark secrets behind the husbands’ occupations, and a whole lot of sex. The movie is filled with steamy moments between actors Florence Pugh and Harry Styles. In a 2021 interview with Vogue, director Olivia Wilde said, “[I want my audience to] realize how rarely they see female hunger, and specifically this type of female pleasure.” Wilde explained that she drew inspiration from popular films like Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal for the sex scenes in Don’t Worry Darling between Pugh and Styles.
Harry Styles described his scenes with Florence Pugh as trustworthy. “We were lucky to have a trusting relationship with the people we worked with,” he said. “It was discussed — above the filming and above the camera, it’s me and you. We’re doing this together, we trust each other, and at any point, we can stop.”
14.
Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon: Sex and the City (1998–2004)
Before every Sex and the City episode, Kim Cattrall always came in prepared with a variety of different angles and suggestions to see what would fit better for Samantha and the man she was having sex with. Whether it was the hot priest from Season 4 or the fireman from Season 3, Cattrall always came up with ideas. She said, “In the sex scene with the fireman, I suggested, ‘Let me do an orgasm with the sound of a fire engine, let me try different things.’ You don’t know if one’s going to be too much or not enough, so it’s nice for [the SATC crew] to have a few choices.”
According to Cynthia Nixon, filming sex scenes for Sex and the City wasn’t sexy or realistic in the slightest. She said most of the men who came on the show had never filmed a sex scene before, so things would naturally feel awkward. “Even when [the sex] seems real, it feels very fake because we don’t show an entire lovemaking session,” Nixon said. “It’s quiet, and then you hear, ‘Action!’ and all of a sudden you start screaming.”
And all of the men who ended up filming sex scenes on Sex and the City wore a cup so nothing would actually show onscreen. The cups were labeled “KC” for Kim Cattrall’s initials.
15.
Kathryn Hahn, Owen Teague, and Katie Kershaw: Mrs. Fletcher (2019)
It’s no secret that Kathryn Hahn is a humongous icon in the LGBTQ+ community, so when she filmed a threesome with Owen Teague and Katie Kershaw in the short-lived TV show Mrs. Fletcher, my queer self personally went bananas. There was an intimacy coordinator on set, which initially made Hahn feel nervous because “it was going to feel like an extra voice in a way, but it was not like that at all.” She told Variety, “We knew the partner was taken care of and felt safe, and you could just walk on and feel completely comfortable and good.”
Kathryn Hahn delved deep into her character’s — Eve Fletcher — perspective on sex, especially while filming her love scene with Teague (Julian) and Kershaw (Amanda). “I love that we got to see a woman at this stage in the game with such a beautiful sense of courage and bravery to just try something new,” she said. “She’s actually at a place where she’s like: ‘Screw it, I’m ready to dig up who I am.'”
16.
Viola Davis and Billy Brown: How to Get Away with Murder (2014–2020)
In the Hollywood Reporter’s roundtable for lead actresses in a drama series, Viola Davis opened up about filming a specific sex scene in Season 1 of How to Get Away with Murder. She tried to honor her craft as an actor as much as possible in that moment: “I allowed myself to be uncomfortable — I’m not gonna talk myself out of it,” Davis said. “I’m just a human being at the end of the day, and I’m doing something very private in public. The nerves and the insecurities and [everything] I feel is a part of Annalise. I cannot will her to be made of Teflon before she dives on top of a very hot-looking guy!”
When Viola Davis appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2016, she went into further detail about the physical damage and effort that went into filming. “[Billy Brown and I] really went for it. I said, ‘I’m always playing a maid, I’m always gaining 40 pounds for a role — I wanna be sexy. I’m pulling out all the stops!’ So I went for it, and I threw my back out,” Davis told Kimmel. “He [slammed] me up against the wall, and six people [were] behind the wall holding it up. That thing [was] shaking. [The scene] sounded sexy, but it really wasn’t.”
17.
Reneé Rapp, Alyah Chanelle Scott, Midori Francis, and Chris Meyer: The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021–present)
Mindy Kaling’s brilliant TV show, The Sex Lives of College Girls, is a realistic portrayal of what young women actually experience as they explore their sexuality. In a 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Reneé Rapp (Leighton) revealed she felt comfortable shooting her sex scenes: “There’s very open dialogue about your comfort level on the day [of filming], before the day [of filming] — you have several conversations,” she said. “There was one scene I remember, I was just sitting with my scene partner, and it was taking forever — we were literally just sitting there naked, talking about skincare. It felt really great!”
Alyah Chanelle Scott, who plays soccer player Whitney, also described that filming these intimate scenes wasn’t as sexy as outsiders might’ve thought. She said, “All of my friends are like, ‘So tell me: How was it? Was it hot?’ and I’m like, ‘Not at all — if anything, it takes five hours, and you’re just sitting on top of this man.’ She’d ask her scene partner technical questions like, ‘Am I heavy? My hips kind of hurt — wanna move that way?'”
Alyah Chanelle Scott also combated the idea that The Sex Lives of College Girls and Sex and the City are essentially the same show, a comparison that feels very easy to make. “There’s a big difference in the sense that [Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte] were adults exploring their sexuality, and we are younger women who are coming into themselves,” she said. “They were also four white women — and we are clearly not four white women. In ways, it’s cool to be compared to it, [but] in other ways I can’t wait for people to see how different our show is.”
18.
Kristen Wiig and Jon Hamm: Bridesmaids (2011)
Bridesmaids: you know it, you love it, and you certainly can’t forget the hilarious sex scene between Kristen Wiig and Jon Hamm because it’s literally the first thing we see in the movie. While promoting the iconic comedy back in 2011, Wiig and Hamm spoke with Access Hollywood about what it was like shooting this memorable scene together and how awkward it was for both of them. Because Wiig and Hamm have a sibling-like relationship, she said it was super embarrassing to pretend to have sex: “[Jon] is like my brother. He really is! I mean, it’s so silly. It was more funny than anything.”
Apparently, they shot their sex scene on the last day of filming Bridesmaids, and it took 12 hours to wrap everything up. Hamm reminisced about filming with his good pal, telling Access Hollywood, “It’s not a lot of fun rolling around in front of 30 or 40 crew members in a flesh-colored thong, but we did have a lot of fun. We had a lot of jokes and a lot of laughs.”
19.
And Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly: Bound (1996)
When Gina Gershon (Corky) and Jennifer Tilly (Violet) filmed their infamous sex scene in Bound, it was a groundbreaking moment in Hollywood (it also became a blueprint for how two women sexually expressed themselves in movies and TV shows). Gershon and Tilly gushed how natural and easy it was to film their sex scene, one that is so magnifying and just…whew. “Gina is the coolest person to ever do a love scene with — she was playful,” Tilly said in a 2019 interview. “I would be like, ‘Can you put your hand here so my cellulite doesn’t show? Can you prop my breast to make it look a little more plump?'”
Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly also expressed that filming their sex scene felt easy because of the Wachowskis (the legendary filmmakers behind Bound). “[The Wachowskis] knew every angle, every cut — they came from doing graphic novels, so they really had it in their heads,” Gershon said. Tilly chimed in and explained how the Wachowskis made sure her sex scene with Gershon represented queer sex between two LGBTQ+ women in an honest light. “There’s a male version of what lesbians are, and you see it in the soft-core porn movies all the time,” Tilly said. “They wanted to be very respectful of the lesbian community. They wanted it to be very authentic and raw — not pornographic (although it was pornographic, because we’re hot).”