Hollywood Has Truly Nailed How Women Have Sex In Movies/TV Shows, And Here Are 11 Stories From Actors To Prove It
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Angela Bassett and Lady Gaga: American Horror Story: Hotel (2015)
When Lady Gaga made her debut in the American Horror Story world, she did it 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!'"
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.'"
We love when two actors communicate healthily before filming intimate scenes!!!
Sabrina Impacciatore and Beatrice Grannò: The White Lotus (2022)
Season 1 of The White Lotus was pretty good, but NOTHING compared to Season 2, mainly because of Sabrina Impacciatore's (Valentina) and Beatrice Grannò's (Mia) chemistry. Throughout the season, we slowly saw Valentina coming to terms with her sexuality and eventually feeling comfortable enough to express it. "I was thinking about that moment like the volcano Etna erupting — it's important, and it's going to affect [Valentina's] future," Impacciatore told Entertainment Weekly. "I remember very well what I felt [while filming], and everything I was feeling was real. I was not acting — I really was feeling it."
Grannò's perspective on filming her sex scene with Sabrina Impacciatore felt intimate, and she considered how her character could make Impacciatore's character feel the most satisfied.
"I went the opposite direction — instead of playing the sexy girl who uses her body to get what she wants, I wanted to go to a much deeper level," she revealed to Variety. "I think Mia likes Valentina. It's equal in a way — it's very sweet. It's not about having sex — it's about being embraced for who [Valentina] is."
Taraji P. Henson and Michael Ealy: Think Like a Man (2012)
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. 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!'"
Henson revealed how professional 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). "We were kissing — for real," Henson said. "Real kisses."
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 sex scene with Billy Brown in How to Get Away with Murder Season 1. She tried to honor her craft as an actor as much as possible: "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 Davis appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2016, she revealed more details about the sexy scene.
"[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."
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."
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.'"
Abbi Jacobson and D'Arcy Carden: A League of Their Own (2022)
With the help of their 15-year friendship, Abbi Jacobson and D'Arcy Carden brought a whole new energy to the 2022 remake of A League of Their Own. Because of their friendship, Jacobson (Carson Shaw) and Carden (Greta Gill) found filming their sex scene in E4 nothing but comfortable. "By the time we got to the heavier sex scenes, I felt way more comfortable than I felt with someone I didn't know right away," Jacobson revealed to Glamour. "I felt more uneasy around the 30 other people watching than with D'Arcy."
Carden admitted how humorous it all was: "Kissing anyone on camera makes no sense — it's weird. There are a million people around you who have to walk through every moment of it. Where's your hand gonna go? Where's your butt gonna go?"
But ultimately, she expressed how easy it was working with Jacobson. "It was just two friends who were working with an intimacy coordinator and French-kissing a bunch," Carden said. "I just remember on set in Pittsburgh being like: 'Wow, we've kissed every day this week — like, that's what we do now. We just touch boobs and kiss.'"
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, Berry revealed how her team didn't want her to take the role and thought filming the sex scene with 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."
Rachel Shelley and Alexandra Hedison: The L Word (2006)
Everyone knows The L Word was famous for not only a look inside LGBTQ+ female culture in West Hollywood but also their intense sex scenes. However, the sex scenes weren't just physical, but emotional too. Rachel Shelley (Helena Peabody) and Alexandra Hedison's (Dylan) sex scene in Season 3 reflected this mindset. "I think that scene with Alex was the most intimate and the most prolonged scene that I've had to do like that, and god, I was glad it was with her," Shelley told Curve in the 2000s. "She and I got on so well, so I was really glad it was with someone [where] we could look after each other and be very comfortable with one another."
Shelley also talked about how much filming the sex scene stuck with her. "Filming them isn't hard — but sometimes there's a hangover from it. There's an aftertaste that you can't get rid of," she said. "It's not while you’re doing it — because I think you just get on. You know what you've got to do. You have to throw yourself into it totally, otherwise, it doesn't work."
DeWanda Wise and Ilfenesh Hadera: She's Gotta Have It (2017–2019)
In the TV adaptation of She's Gotta Have It (a film Spike Lee originally directed in 1986), there were no intimacy coordinators on set. DeWanda Wise (Nola Darling) took matters into her own hands in Season 2 when she created a contract and vocalized how she wanted her sex scenes to look with acting partner, Ilfenesh Hadera (Opal Gilstrap).
When it came to capturing Nola and Opal's intimacy on screen, Wise explained how comfort was at the core of their sexual relationship.
"The way Nola and Opal have sex and enjoy each other, not just in the kind of physical intimacy, but even the comfort that Opal has to allow Nola to sketch her, feels more vulnerable and intimate for some people than sex. We concerned ourself with the specificity and the quality of their relationship."
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara: Carol (2015)
While promoting Carol, Cate Blanchett (Carol) and Rooney Mara (Therese) were constantly asked how their sexual chemistry came about. 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."
Blanchett described how powerful it was to film their sex scene because of how isolated their characters were in the film leading up to the moment. She said: "They go through a lot of processing these volcanic feelings independent upon one another, so, frankly, it was a relief to do these scenes with Rooney. It's like: 'Finally, we get to be together.'"
Initially, it was a difficult day shooting their first sex scene because there were bed bugs in the hotel room. But, Blanchett thought it was still 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 I."
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?'"
Gershon and 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)."
Let's flip the script (pun intended) a little bit, folks: What's a movie/TV sex scene that's totally underrated, and people don't talk about enough? Tell us which one (and WHY you think it's underrated) in the comments below.
We all know about Keira Knightley and James McAvoy in Atonement (2007), so let's try to think outside the box!
