When it comes to making art, acting and pretending just isn’t good enough for some filmmakers.
Most of the time, intimate scenes are carefully choreographed to give the viewers the intended experience. But sometimes, directors and actors crank it up a notch and willingly do the real deed in front of the camera.
From Robert Pattinson’s not-so-faked to Aubrey Plaza engaging in some solo-pleasure, these are some movies where the stars didn’t fake the passion. The list also includes two movies in which the actors pretended so well that they had to put out statements to clarify that they were just acting.
#1 Nymphomaniac
Director von Trier was extremely particular about having some genuine lovemaking in his film Nymphomaniac, starring Shia LaBeouf, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Uma Thurman, and others.
“There’s a disclaimer at the top of the script that basically says, we’re doing [it] for real,” Shia told MTV about the film in 2012.
However, none of the actors on the main cast list actually had intercourse because their body doubles took care of it.
“We shot the actors pretending to have s** and then had the body doubles, who really did have s**, and in post we will digital-impose the two,” Producer Louise Vesth told The Hollywood Reporter. “So above the waist it will be the star and the below the waist it will be the doubles.”
Image credits: ABC Distribution
#2 Little Ashes
For Robert Pattinson, faking it for the camera “doesn’t work.” And so, he admitted to pleasuring himself onscreen while playing artist Salvador Dali in Little Ashes.
“My orgasm face is recorded for eternity,” he was quoted telling Interview magazine.
He said faking these moments onscreen “doesn’t work, so [he] pleasured [himself] in front of the camera.”
Image credits: Kaleidoscope Entertainment
#3 Antichrist
The 2009 psychological horror Antichrist had several scenes that had the audience squirming, including a notorious shot of penetrative intercourse.
But veteran actor Willem Dafoe and his co-star, Charlotte Gainsbourg, had body doubles used in the film’s intimate shots.
“He [Willem Dafoe] has an enormous d***, we had to take those scenes out of the film,” Director Lars von Trier said.
“We had a stand-in for him because we had to take the scenes out with his own d**k,” he added.
During an appearance on The Boston Phoenix podcast, Lars was asked whether a body double was needed because Willem’s assets were too big to fit the screen.
“No, too big because everybody got very confused when they saw it,” he quipped.
Image credits: Nordisk Film Distribution
#4 Intimacy
A little bit of convincing was all Mark Rylance needed to engage in some real oral pleasure with Kerry Fox for the 2021 British drama Intimacy.
Mark once said in the past that he was reluctant to do the scene, but Director Patrice Chéreau talked him into it.
“I was convinced it was a vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London,” Mark told The Guardian.
The actor expressed regret over the controversial film.
“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. I wish I hadn’t made it,” he added.
Kerry, on the other hand, said she had “no regrets” about the scene.
“I absolutely have no regrets and it’s one of the best pieces of work I’ve ever done,” she told Metro in 2012.
Image credits: Studio Canal
#5 Monster’s Ball (Debunked Rumor)
For years, rumors claimed Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton were really doing the deed during the explicit scene in Monster's Ball.
But the Oscar-winning actress put the speculation to rest during an interview last year on Dax Shepard’s podcast Armchair Expert.
“There’s an urban legend that we really were f***ing. I’ve heard it, and it’s just not true,” she said.
The actress said the rumors “secretly” drove her “mad” for years and clarified that it was just good acting with her co-star, who was married to Angelina Jolie at the time.
“You can’t just be a good actor, and you can’t just make that s–t look real,” she said about people’s gossip. “He had a wife, so, you know, all respect,” she added. “I know Angie and she ain’t signing off on that s–t. I’m a girls girl. I’ll do a lot of things, but I’m not gonna sleep with your man.”
Image credits: Lionsgate Films
#6 Shortbus
About 18 years ago, Shortbus premiered at Cannes and became widely known for featuring real intimate scenes and even actors climaxing onscreen.
“I’d seen a lot of films that had used real s** in the early 2000s, and they were interesting, sometimes, but they were grim and the s** was bad,” writer and director John Cameron Mitchell said about his motivation to make Shortbus.
John said the making of the movie was like therapy for him.
“I was brought up very Catholic and so s** was a bad thing and queer s** was worse,” he said. “This was my own therapy, as well, to remind us that s** is a part of life. We think of the film as a relationship. It’s front-loaded with s** and by the end of it, it’s the last thing you’re thinking about, just like a relationship.”
Image credits: FilmFlex
#7 To Do List
Aubrey Plaza found herself flying solo in bed while playing Brandy Klark in the 2013 film The To Do List.
During an interview with Conan O’Brien, she said the script contained a scene that said: “Brandy mas***bates.”
When she had a conversation with director Maggie Carey about the scene, she simply replied, “Mas***bate, like it says in the script.”
Aubrey then pictured a “nice scene where you see my hand slowly go out of frame.” But she eventually realized it was quite the opposite.
“When I showed up, the camera was mounted on the ceiling, I was in my underwear and a Clinton T-shirt and there were a bunch of old men smoking. You know, the crew guys,” she told Conan.
“They weren’t smoking, but, my memory … and then I went and touched myself,” she continued. “I thought I was doing one thing and then, when I showed up, it was a whole different thing; it was a full-body shot.”
Image credits: CBS Films
#8 9 Songs
The steamy drama 9 Songs had no body doubles or camera tricks when characters Lisa and Matt, played by Margo Stilley and Kieran O’Brien, were shown being intimate in the 2004 film.
It is one of the most explicit films in mainstream British cinematic history and caused quite a stir for showing actors even climaxing in front of the camera.
“I wanted to make a film about something I really believe in, which is to show s** in a very positive light, as a very important piece of everyday life and a very important piece of a relationship, whether it’s successful or unsuccessful,” Margo told The Guardian in 2005.
“What I find in films I see is that s** is always a turning point in action, someone’s cheating on someone, or someone dies. It’s always the kids having s** in horror films that die. And I didn’t like that,” she added.
Image credits: Optimum Releasing
#9 The Brown Bunny
Actress Chloë Sevigny famously performed some oral love-making on her director and co-star Vincent Gallo for her role in The Brown Bunny.
She once told the New York Post that she isn’t bothered by “the s** stuff” in movies.
Vincent and Chloë were romantically involved before the making of the 2003 art film The Brown Bunny, which became notoriously famous for the risqué scene.
Image credits: Wellspring Worldwide
#10 Lie With Me
“Are you kidding?” was Lauren Lee Smith’s first reaction when her agent said she would have to have real intercourse for the film Lie with Me.
She said Director Clement Virgo got her and her co-star Eric Balfour in a room together prior to the making of the movie to see if they had chemistry.
“There was apparently chemistry,” Lauren laughed and said.
Image credits: CBC
#11 Love
Right from the opening scene, viewers of Love are exposed to a number of bedroom antics.
Actor Karl Glusman said he had to pleasure himself on the very first day of shooting.
The film’s director Gaspar Noe “likes surprises,” Karl said.
“So the first day of shooting, he said, ‘It’s time for your big close up!’ He lowered the camera to my waist level and got the focus right. And he said, ‘All right, take your pants off!’ The scene was on the first day of shooting. That was my ice breaker,” he told Variety in 2015.
The director said all the scenes, where actors don’t have any clothes on, were shot in the very first week of shooting with no rehearsals.
“Some things are real and some things are simulated in the movie, but it's not an issue as long as it looks real on screen. By starting with a scene where things really happen, you believe all the rest is real,” the director was quoted telling Slant.
“It's like a magician bringing a rabbit out of a hat: If the rabbit looks alive, that's important, not how it comes out,” he added.
Image credits: Les Cinémas De La Zone
#12 Don't Look Now (Debunked Rumor)
Halfway through the movie Don’t Look Now, viewers get to see one of the most raw, sensual, and controversial lovemaking scenes of all time.
The 1973 thriller stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, who play a married couple grieving over the the loss of their daughter to a drowning accident.
Peter Bart, an author and former Paramount executive, claimed he watched the co-stars having intercourse during the infamous scene.
“It was clear to me they were no longer simply acting: they were f***ing on camera,” he wrote in his 2011 memoir Infamous Players: A Tale of Movies, the Mob, (and S**).
However, Donald put out a statement and said Peter wasn’t even in the room during the scene’s filming.
“Peter Bart mendaciously writes that he witnessed the shooting of the love scene in Don’t Look Now and saw s**. Not true. None of it. Not the s**. Not him witnessing it,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.
“From beginning to end, there were four people in that room. [Director] Nic Roeg, [DP] Tony Richmond, Julie Christie and me. No one else. Wires under the locked door led outside, and this was 20 years before video monitors,” he added.
Peter Katz, who produced Don’t Look Now, told the outlet at the time: “While there was a s** scene captured on film. It was not a scene that would lead to the creation of a human being.”
Image credits: British Lion Films
