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Beyoncé, Booze, and Other Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Movie Sex Scenes

Those bedroom scenes in Fifty Shades of Grey sure look hot, even if actress Dakota Johnson has described the shooting process as “sweaty” and “not very comfortable.” So how does the awkward process of filming a sex scene translate to those glasses-fogging moments at the movies? The New York Times asked a group of directors, actors, producers, and cinematographers for the secrets to shooting onscreen sex. Here are some of their recommendations.

Music helps. So does alcohol. To prepare for her sex scenes in the forthcoming comedy Trainwreck, actress Amy Schumer listened to Beyoncé in her trailer (perhaps she’d seen that early Fifty Shades trailer). And cinematographer Seamus McGarvey recalls that “Come to Me” by Mark Lanegan and PJ Harvey was playing when he filmed Atonement’s steamy library scene between Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. But sometimes tunes alone aren’t enough: Director Adrian Lyne told the Times that Glenn Close and Michael Douglas downed Champagne and margaritas before their sexy Fatal Attraction scenes.

Shooting is quick and dirty. McGarvey, who also worked on Fifty Shades of Grey, says he always filmed Johnson and Jamie Dornan’s sex scenes with two cameras so that the actors had to do fewer takes. When Lyne made Indecent Proposal, meanwhile, he shot Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore’s sex scene with a zoom lens, so that he could get a combination of wide and close shots without interrupting them. “It’s a mistake to stop them,” says Lyne. “Usually they’re quite quick, love scenes like that, because there’s a limit to their endurance. Just in terms of kissing somebody, you can’t kiss forever.”

Performers do get turned on (a little). Actors love to gripe about shooting sex scenes, but directors say arousal is part of the job. “I’ve never seen an actor with an erection, in all of the films and the sex scenes that I’ve done, but it doesn’t mean that I haven’t seen a guy being excited,” says Wild director Jean-Marc Vallée. “It’s so technical, but we’re humans, and they’re naked, and they touch each other.” Lyne agrees, saying that the actors need to be enjoying themselves, “otherwise the scene would be hopeless.”

Nudity can be faked. McGarvey says that Dakota Johnson used a butt double for some scenes, and that both she and Dornan had their genitals covered by patches during the sex scenes. “We were in the curious situation, in postproduction, of adding [pubic hair],” says the Fifty Shades cinematographer. On the other hand, some actors just go for the full monty. Lyne reveals that in one scene from Fatal Attraction, Michael Douglas revealed a little more than he intended. “We noticed in the cutting room literally one frame where his testicles were visible. You couldn’t cut it out — it’s very, very brief,” he says with a laugh. “I hope Michael will forgive me for saying this.”

Go here to read the full article.

Image credit: Universal