1.On Normal People, when filming some of the more ~athletic~ sex scenes, Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones were covered in a gel called "Egyptian Magic," which made it look as if they were sweating. When they would separate from each other, the gel would make a "really loud fart noise," according to Paul, and he and Daisy could not stop laughing after it happened.
2.During the Fifty Shades of Grey films, Jamie Dornan wore a "wee bag," aka a bag covering his penis, during his sex scenes with Dakota Johnson. However, when he picked out a bag, he noticed the inseam read, "Inmate #3," meaning it had been used in another film production.
3.And when they were filming Fifty Shades of Grey, Dakota taught Jamie a "delicate and more sensual way" to take off her underwear when they were filming a sex scene. Jamie joked that Dakota gave him the note after he essentially pulled her underwear down very fast and in an unsexy way.
4.The first scene Phoebe Dynevor and Regé Jean-Page filmed together for Bridgerton Season 1 was when Daphne and Simon have sex in the library. "It was quite heated, to say the least," Phoebe recalled. All of the sex scenes were blocked and rehearsed alongside intimacy coordinator Lizzy Talbot "weeks and weeks" before filming actually began.
5.Meanwhile, Jonathan Bailey's first day on the set of Bridgerton included Anthony and Siena having sex against a tree. Jonathan joked that he got to know the makeup department "intimately" on day one because they had to "de-shine [his] bottom." Anthony described his first day on set as "intimate and exposing."
6.In order to make their first sex scene on Insecure a little less awkward, Y'lan Noel, who played Daniel, bought Issa Rae a sausage biscuit from Jack in the Box, which is Daniel's favorite breakfast, and the box had pictures of camels on it and it read, "Happy Hump Day." The duo filmed this scene on a Wednesday, too.
7.Emma Stone was super nervous to film her intimate scene with Olivia Colman for The Favourite, and Olivia's little prank made it hilariously mortifying. Before the scene, Olivia secretly put "a big, wet sponge" between her legs, so when Emma reached under Olivia's dress, she felt the wet sponge and was stunned.
8.On Pam & Tommy, there's a scene when Tommy Lee, played by Sebastian Stan, has a conversation with his penis, which is voiced by Jason Mantzoukas, and shooting the moment was as uncomfortable as you'd expect. There were four puppeteers working an animatronic penis while Sebastian was naked. He recalled filming the scene for hours, saying, "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."
9.On Superbad, Christopher Mintz-Plasse's mom was actually in the room when he filmed McLovin's now-iconic "it's in" scene. Since Christopher was only 17 years old during filming, his mom legally had to be on set. "I was just sitting there with my bors on, waiting for my mom to drive down to the set," Christopher recalled. "She got there, and I had fake sexual intercourse in front of her."
10.While filming a sex scene with Allison Janney for Life During Wartime, Michael Lerner ended up at the hospital after he slipped on a marble floor while pushing Allison up against a wall. The duo were sprayed with "glistening stuff" to make it look like they were sweating, so he slipped, and Allison could not stop laughing.
11.After filming her sex scene with Guy Pearce on Mare of Easttown, Kate Winslet had to fight for her body not to be retouched during editing. Originally, director Craig Zobel informed Kate that he'd remove "a bulgy bit of belly" that was noticeable during the scene, but Kate responded with, "Don't you dare." This also came after Kate sent the poster for the series back to the team, twice, because she felt her face was too retouched.
12.Jason Biggs had to shoot his famous pie sex scene from American Pie for almost "six hours," and he had to film multiple options and positions. Assistant director J.B. Rogers would also give Jason some pretty awkward notes, like, "Showing not enough crack" and "We can see a little bit of your penis here."
13.For the episode of The White Lotus where Armond and Dillon have sex, originally the script called for the duo getting caught having sex, but Murray Bartlett and Lukas Gage suggested that it would be more "interesting if [Dillon's] getting his salad tossed." They ended up having to reblock the entire scene and then, as Lukas described it, they literally dove in headfirst.
14.Filming the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1 sex scene between Bella and Edward was not the most fun experience. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson both explained that it took forever to film because they shot the entire scene, but then there were "so many" close-ups that also had to be filmed, so it took hours. Looking back on it in 2015, Kristen said she and Rob were "self-consciously aware" of how "epic" the scene had to be, and it was "agony" to film.
15.Before filming began on Sex Education, intimacy coordinator Ita O'Brien had the cast watch "videos depicting various animal mating rituals," like slugs, lions, dogs, monkeys, and more. The next day, they came in and had to re-create the moves on chairs, walls, etc. Aimee Lou Wood explained that the cast didn't really know each other well, and it proved to be "the best icebreaker ever."
16.And Tanya Reynolds, who plays Lily on Sex Education, said her most awkward sex scene to film during Season 1 was when Lily dances for Otis. There was no music on set, so she was just dancing, naked, and singing out loud. Tanya hilariously recalled that Asa Butterfield was trying so hard not to laugh.
17.During Game of Thrones Season 1, Jason Momoa tried to cheer up Emilia Clarke during the wedding night scene between Daenerys and Khal Drogo by wearing a bright-pink and super-fluffy sock over his penis. He switched his usual "modesty sock" for the pink one when the shot was only on Emilia's face, so she tried really hard not to laugh.
18.While filming a sex scene with Paul Rudd for Living With Yourself, Aisling Bea's nipple pasties fell off while they were doing one long, improvised take. In order to shield her nipples from the 20 crew members, Aisling had Paul put his hands on her boobs, while they were simultaneously feeling around for Aisling's pasties, which somehow ended up stuck to her butt. The improvised boob-covering moment hilariously made the final cut.
19.While filming a sex scene in a car for Queen & Slim, Jodie Turner-Smith explained that there was "a whole 10 minutes" spent trying to perfectly position her leg while it was resting on the dashboard; meanwhile, Daniel Kaluuya kept getting the awkward note to "move his butt" just a little to the right.
20.And while screening Queen & Slim for the first time with their families, both Daniel and Jodie left the theater so they didn't have to watch the intimate moment with them. However, Jodie hilariously revealed that at the afterparty, Daniel's mom confronted her and wanted to know all the details that went into filming the intimate moment.
21.Dave Franco got several awkward notes while filming his first sex scene for Neighbors. After a few takes, the director came up to Dave and told him to do "more jackrabbit," aka move his ass faster, and suggested Dave flex his arms. "It looked like I was going to hit the girl," Dave explained when talking about the flexing note. He also recalled that he didn't want to see his "flat, pale ass moving as fast as humanly possible" on film.
22.And the morning before filming that exact same sex scene for Neighbors, Dave noticed he had a pimple on his butt, so he awkwardly had to go to the makeup trailer and ask a makeup artist — whom he had just met that week — to apply makeup literally on his ass.
23.During the filming of Emily and Sue's sex scene in Dickinson Season 3, music was originally going to play during the moment, so no audio from Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Hunt was recorded. However, once creator Alena Smith realized she wanted to hear Emily's breathing over the scene alongside a poem, Hailee had to record all of the breathing noises in an additional recording session after filming wrapped. In the end, Taylor Swift's "Ivy" was featured only at the end of the scene.
24.During a scene in The Change-Up, Olivia Wilde drew smiley faces on the pasties covering her nipples, which surprised Ryan Reynolds so much that he forgot all of his lines while he was sitting there holding her boobs. To make things even more uncomfortable, Ryan's palms were sweaty, so when he lifted his hands off Olivia, the smiley pasties followed.
25.Jennifer Lawrence's first sex scene was in Passengers with Chris Pratt, and Jennifer got very drunk before filming it. The idea of shooting the moment was so "stressful and scary" for her that she had a few drinks and was "incredibly hungover" by the time they got to the sex scene later in an eight-hour shooting day.
26.Outlander stars Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe have filmed so many sex scenes together on the show that now there are conversations on set about how to make the new ones "different." Caitriona joked that they need to get a "love scene twister" so they can use the spinner to figure out what to do next.
27.During It's a Sin, there's a montage that features Ritchie having sex with numerous men. Olly Alexander said the way the filming schedule worked out, he had a full two days of just doing sex scenes, which was exhausting. Also, since the montage is specifically set to classical music, it was really playing on set while they filmed.
28.For her first-ever sex scene in Wilson opposite Woody Harrelson, Judy Greer decided she was just going to "go for it" and be very confident during the moment. However, once the sex scene rehearsal ended, the director approached Judy and said, "Okay, maybe she's not THAT into it." As anyone would be, Judy was mortified that she apparently went too big for the moment.
29.And finally, before filming a spanking scene in A Dangerous Method, Kiera Knightley drank several shots of vodka before arriving to film the intimate moment with Michael Fassbender. Her bodyguard was also on set, and she told Michael that if he touched her, her bodyguard would "break [his] legs." In the end, Michael didn't actually slap Kiera's butt but, rather, a box, which was hidden off camera.
