Sex scenes in movies and TV are made to look passionate and effortless on-screen, but according to maybe every actor alive, filming them is deeply unsexy — and sometimes straight-up humiliating. So, here are 19 actors who were brave enough to reveal the ugly, embarrassing, and smelly truth behind what happened while filming their sex scenes…
1.
Even the woman behind Samantha Jones — arguably TV’s most iconic sex icon — had one unnamed sex-scene story so ridiculous that it sounds like a rejected Sex and the City subplot. Kim Cattrall said she was filming a sex scene with a male actor positioned on top of her when, as she recalled on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories, “He collapsed! And then he farted!” Kim said she was so stunned that she briefly wondered, “Is this an acting choice he has made?” which is maybe the most generous possible excuse for a man fainting and farting on set.
2.
In The Tudors, Henry Cavill had the kind of sex-scene mishap that actors probably pray never happens to them. He said he was filming an intimate scene with a female costar on top of him when his body reacted ✨involuntarily✨. To make it worse, it was a professional set surrounded by crew members, cameras, and people waiting for the take to finish. In a Men’s Fitness interview, Henry said, “It’s only happened to me once, and it was very embarrassing. […] A girl had to be on top of me, she had spectacular breasts, and I hadn’t rearranged my — stuff into a harmless position. She’s basically rubbing herself all over me and, um, it got a bit hard.”
3.
The Wolf of Wall Street made Margot Robbie and Leonardo DiCaprio’s cash-covered bedroom scene look like an upper-class fantasy, but Margot said the reality was just pain and chaos 😭. The fake money used on set was much sharper than real cash, and in an interview with The Daily Beast, Margot said, “I got a million paper cuts on my back” and went home looking like she had been whipped. And in another absurd sex scene, Margot said Leo hid his e-cigarette under a pillow between takes…only for it to somehow end up in her butt crack during the shoot.
4.
In Love & Other Drugs, Anne Hathaway had a scene with Jake Gyllenhaal where the simple task was to take off a trench coat and reveal that she was nude underneath. Unfortunately, the task was not as simple as it sounded… While promoting the movie, Anne revealed, “On the day I shot the scene where I have to remove my trench coat and be nude underneath, I thought we were filming, but it turned out we were just rehearsing, and I got unnecessarily naked in front of a lot of people.” Honestly, she’s stronger than me because I would’ve resigned immediately. 😖
5.
The Proposal‘s famous naked collision scene was never supposed to be sexy, but Sandra Bullock said it was even unsexier behind-the-scenes. In the movie, her character steps out of the shower and accidentally collides with Ryan Reynolds’ character, who is also naked. And Sandra said she only agreed to do the scene because it was built for comedy, but while filming their naked bodies slamming into each other, director Anne Fletcher suddenly yelled from the dark, “Ryan, we can see your ball sack!” Sandra recalled on Adam Ray’s About Last Night podcast that Ryan stayed completely calm while she was panicking internally, which made the whole thing worse.
6.
Fifty Shades is the sex movie of all sex movies that really sold the Wattpad fantasy, but Dakota Johnson’s reality was full of whiplash and superglue. In Vogue’s Off the Cuff series, Dakota admitted that she “got whiplash from Fifty Shades,” after a scene with Jamie Dornan where he throws her onto a bed over and over…until she woke up unable to move her neck. As if that weren’t unglamorous enough, Dakota also talked about the strapless modesty thongs she had to wear during the franchise’s intimate scenes. When the adhesive failed, they sometimes had to use superglue, allowing Anastasia Steele to look seductive onscreen and Dakota Johnson to look strained and sticky.
7.
In Her, Scarlett Johansson’s intimate scene with Joaquin Phoenix was all voice and no body, which somehow didn’t make it any less awkward. Because Scarlett’s character, Samantha, is an operating system, she had to record phone-sex-style audio into a microphone while Joaquin was there trying to perform with her. On Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Scarlett said they tried to get through one take, but Joaquin was “losing it,” adding, “He left the studio. He needed a break.”
8.
In We Live in Time, Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh’s sex scene became awkward because they were almost too committed to the bit. The scene was filmed on a closed set and carefully choreographed, allowing both actors to feel safe enough to keep going. Subsequently, Andrew revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that they were so immersed and comfortable that “We didn’t hear cut,” explaining that they went “a little bit further” than intended before realizing the camera operator had already lowered the camera and turned away…
9.
The Legend of Tarzan is full of jungle stunts and physical action, but Alexander Skarsgård’s most memorable bruise came from a love scene with Margot Robbie. For a scene between Jane and Tarzan, director David Yates wanted the moment to feel raw and physical, so he told Entertainment Weekly that he instructed Margot, “Just slap Alex while you’re making love, just kind of give him a punch.” She apparently took that note seriously enough to leave a bruise, and David said Alexander’s only bruise from the shoot was from “that punch from Margot.”
10.
In Little Ashes, Robert Pattinson’s Salvador Dalí sex scenes became embarrassing for a reason that is almost too explicit to even explain. The movie included intimate scenes between Dalí and poet Federico García Lorca, with Robert later revealing that one climactic moment was not entirely faked for the camera. In a talk with Germany’s Interview magazine, Robert reportedly called the production “mortifying” and joked that his “orgasm face is recorded for eternity” since people can now see “what I look like when I masturbate.” This one’s definitelyyyy unique, but honestly, I expect nothing less from Edward Cullen.
11.
In The Change-Up, Ryan Reynolds learned that nothing kills the mood faster than two tiny smiley faces. During a sex scene with Olivia Wilde, she was wearing pasties for modesty, but when Ryan removed her top, he realized she had drawn “adorable little smiley faces” on them. On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Ryan admitted, “I forget every line in the scene.” He adds, “At some point in the scene she takes my hands and puts them on her breasts […] I take my hands away, and I look down at my hands, and there’s two frickin’ smiley faces on them, and I have no idea what to do. The scene is over now. … And I reflexively, like an idiot, just put my hands right back on her breasts. […] I’m realizing now that it’s a very fine line between chivalry and, you know, workplace sexual assault.”
12.
Masters of Sex is literally a show about sex research, but Lizzy Caplan’s first intimate scene with Michael Sheen still managed to become a soul-crushing disaster. On Conan, Lizzy said she “place[d] the hand on my breast and they yell[ed] cut, and he immediately walk[ed] over to a garbage can, and thr[ew] up.” Michael was actually just sick from food poisoning, but Lizzy didn’t know that at first and revealed: “My whole self-confidence plummeted to the ground, and I realized I’m a monster, and anyone who touches me is going to immediately start vomiting, and that’s the way it’s going to be.” So yeah, there are awkward first days with a costar, and then there’s…this.
13.
Bridgerton‘s Season 3 mirror scene was supposed to be Penelope and Colin’s long-awaited romantic payoff, but behind-the-scenes, the furniture did not survive #Polin. The scene takes place after Colin shows Penelope their future home, and it becomes a huge fan moment because it was longggg overdue. In a BuzzFeed interview, Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton revealed they broke the furniture while filming because they were “really going for it,” and Luke told Vanity Fair that about 20 seconds into the take, “one of the legs just completely snapped off.” For this show, this sounds historically accurate TBH.
14.
In Pose, James McAvoy’s improvised orgy scene resulted in an actual injury, which is a sentence no one wants to hear ever again. During a nine-person orgy scene, James revealed on the Restless Natives podcast that “It was hardcore dancing, everybody was on drugs, we had all drunk loads of whisky, and there was loads of kissing, groping, and disrobing.” But while James was holding actress Almudena Amor upside down, someone grabbed his neck from behind and started biting him, causing him to lose his balance and “smash[…] my knee real hard on the ground.” Getting injured on a movie set is bad enough, but getting injured while naked in the middle of a simulated orgy is a different kind of humiliation 😭.
15.
In Die Another Day, Rosamund Pike thought her love scene with Pierce Brosnan had accidentally turned into a waxing appointment. She was filming the scene with furry rugs, body tape, and nipple covers for modesty, when she saw something mortifying… On The Kelly Clarkson Show, Rosamund said, “I looked down to check these sticky things are still in place, and they were covered in hair. And I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’ve waxed Pierce Brosnan’s chest with my boob tape!'” Luckily, the hair turned out to be fake fur from the bed, but the thought of her silently ripping out James Bond’s chest hair is so funny.
16.
In Rivals, David Tennant’s sex scene became less steamy and more slapstick when his knee met a wooden bed frame. He said he had to launch himself onto a bed while wearing only a modesty pouch, which is already extremely vulnerable. But to make it worse, he hit his knee mid-scene during a take. On This Morning, David described the moment as “not very sexy” and joked that you never want to embarrass yourself by falling over, but you especially do not want to do it while wearing a “modesty pouch.”
17.
In Wilson, Judy Greer’s sex-scene rehearsal with Woody Harrelson went wrong in maybe the most humiliating way possible. On PEOPLE Now, Judy revealed that she gave herself a pep talk before the rehearsal, by telling herself, “I’m not gonna be shy, I’m not gonna be ashamed.” So she went all in — only for the director to basically tell her that her character would not be enjoying the sex that much. Judy said she was “so mortified,” which, honestly, is so fair, considering everything.
18.
In Ponies, Emilia Clarke found out that a sex scene can be rougher than playing with dragons. In the show, she plays Bea, a Cold War-era character whose undercover work involves seducing people, so you can just imagine the sex scenes… In an interview with TheWrap, Emilia described the demanding days on set as “three men, in a number of hours” and said, “I broke a rib.” Her costar Haley Lu Richardson confirmed, “She really did,” while Emilia clarified, “It didn’t like, fully break, it just popped out a little bit.” Considering Emilia spent years filming Game of Thrones battle and dragon sequences, I can’t believe this was the shoot to finally break her.
19.
Last but not least, in Season 3 of The Boys, Chace Crawford’s character, The Deep, has an intimate encounter with an octopus named Ambrosius, which is 100% the weirdest sentence you’ve heard all week. As filming got closer, Chace said he started spiraling over the logistics with how the scene would be shot, how exposed he would have to be, what angles they would use, and exactly how the octopus of it all would work. In a Rolling Stone interview, Chace revealed, “The first day I had to shoot it, I almost had a panic attack.” He ended up calling showrunner Eric Kripke, who changed one shot to help make him more comfortable. But nonetheless, “octopus sex-scene panic” is an absurd thing to have to work through in therapy.
Did we miss any other mortifying sex-scene stories? Tell us in the comments or the anonymous form below — your response may be featured in a future BuzzFeed Community post!
