The Untold Truth About Filming Nude Scenes

While some may think that filming sex or nude scenes for a movie must be just as steamy as the real thing, many actors insist that sex scenes are the most challenging or uncomfortable types of scenes to film. Actor John Turturro shared on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" that they're less like making love and more like going to the dentist. And unless you're Bill Murray from "Little Shop of Horrors," there is nothing sexy about that.

We're exploring everything you always wanted to know about nudity in movies (but were too afraid to ask), such as what specialized garments actors wear to prevent their genitals from bumping and what happens if an actor gets too excited for real. It turns out that a lot of careful planning must go into every single sequence that involves nudity. Even animated sex scenes are hard work!

Thanks to the accounts of countless actors who have bared it all about baring themselves, we can shed a little light on what happens behind the scenes every time a movie character strips down.

Let's clear this up right away. The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (aka SAG-AFTRA) make it explicitly clear that actors cannot have sex while filming a sexually explicit scene. Actors should never be expected to film a scene that involves genitalia touching without some kind of physical barrier. This means any time you see movie characters involved in sex, it is actually simulated sex. These sequences are typically supervised by an intimacy coordinator, who is responsible for communicating the needs of the actor during scenes that involve sex and nudity, as well as organizing the shooting of these scenes so that they will not violate an actor's boundaries. An actor will outline those boundaries in a section of their contract called a nudity rider.

To maximize protection during sex scenes, an intimacy coordinator will often provide performers with an object they can place between them as a barrier. They might use a pillow or a vajoga, which is a padded mat designed exactly for this purpose. Meanwhile, "Bridgerton" actor Jonathan Bailey told Radio Times, "It's amazing what you can do with a half-inflated netball."

If actors start to become aroused for real (because that happens sometimes), the crew needs to stop filming right away. "The worst thing you can do is carry on," explained intimacy coordinator David Thackeray in an interview with Backstage. He added, "Give them five minutes. ... Then we come back into it when they're ready."

Intimacy coordinators are a Hollywood staple now, but before they became commonplace, many performers were expected to violate their boundaries for nude scenes. For example, Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider's notorious sex scene from "Last Tango in Paris" was not consensual. Although Brando and Schneider didn't have sex for real, director Bernardo Bertolucci deliberately withheld from Schneider that he wanted Brando to smear butter all over her, claiming that he wanted to capture her genuine humiliated reaction on-camera.

Meanwhile, another actress (who chose to remain anonymous) told Variety Australia about being pressured into doing uncomfortable things because she didn't have an intimacy coordinator protecting her. She recalled being asked to remove her panties during a shower scene, even though the camera would only show her from the waist up.

What's more, in the past Hollywood has placed the burden on actors to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). For instance, Rock Hudson wanted to tell his "Dynasty" co-star Linda Evans that he had HIV, but he was concerned that he might be fired if he announced his diagnosis. (This was, after all, the 1980s.) At the time, doctors were still figuring out how HIV was spread, so Hudson feared that he might transmit the disease to Evans during their kissing scene and felt incredibly guilty. Hoping to protect Evans, Hudson gargled mouthwash before their kiss, and Evans didn't find out until later why he seemed so reluctant to kiss her.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

Sometimes actors can film sex scenes without even touching their partners. For instance, "Nymphomaniac" hired real-life porn performers as body doubles for the actors and then used CGI to combine their bodies. 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." The actress Stacy Martin explained to MTV, "We would get little black dots on our bodies," adding that her movements were carefully choreographed to match that of her double.

Other filmmakers have found more low-tech solutions. John Turturro recalled on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert filming a sex scene between Kate Winslet and James Gandolfini for the movie "Romance and Cigarettes." Winslet had sprained her ankle, and Turturro realized that the scene simply wasn't working with Winslet trying to straddle Gandolfini. "They were going to be too inhibited," he explained. So instead, he had each of them film their parts separately. Gandolfini had to pretend that Winslet was on top of him, while Winslet bounced on an exercise ball (which was conveniently omitted from the shot). 

Turturro told The New School that Winslet bounced so hard that she fell off the ball at the end of the shot. Still, Turturro wanted audiences to believe the pair were actually in the same room. He explained to Colbert, "So I took Kate's wig, and as James was having sex, I threw Kate's wig in front of the camera," and viewers were none the wiser.

You would think that filming a sex scene in stop-motion animation would be easier, since there are no real people involved, and you can make the puppets do whatever you want. In reality, animating a sex scene is just as messy as filming one with live actors. Just look at "Anomalisa," an R-rated stop-motion film that involves full frontal nudity and an extended sex scene. The sequence, which is presented in one continuous shot, from when the couple lies down on the bed until they climax, took roughly two months to prepare and six months to animate.

The filmmakers started with the voiceover performance from actors David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh, which they used as a basis for the sequence. However, the voice work could only help them so much, because for significant sections of the scene, the actors were simply breathing or moaning. That's why the animators carefully choreographed the scene, using live actors for reference where necessary. Producer Rosa Tran explained that the crew needed to hair-punch each hair on the puppets, including in the crotch region. She added that the modeling department even kept a plastic bag full of spare male parts for the puppets.

So much care went into this sequence that, according to director Charlie Kaufman, many viewers said it was more realistic than any live-action sex scene they had ever seen.

It's no secret that the Motion Picture Association (MPA) is notoriously inconsistent when it comes to rating movies. But it's astonishing how wildly their policy toward nudity varies from film to film. For one, male nudity is treated as more shocking than female nudity. While Kate Winslet's nude body is on full display in the PG-13 "Titanic," Michael Fassbender's full-frontal nudity in "Shame" earned the film an NC-17 rating. In fact, the MPA began including the content warning of "male nudity" to accompany its ratings, though all instances of female nudity have been categorized as "nudity" without any gender-specific labels. In the eyes of a straight, cis male audience, a nude woman seems attractive, but a nude man is icky. Yet this assumption doesn't include every member of the audience. 

Aside from revealing a clear double standard (it's okay for kids to look at naked women but not naked men?) and undermining the purported purpose of the rating (since the graphic content warning may tell hormonal teenagers exactly what they want to know), this policy also suggests a bias against queer couples.

In one of the few ways the MPA has behaved consistently, the organization has shown a tendency to give stricter ratings to movies with LGBTQ+ characters, regardless of the film's actual content. For instance, the film "Love Is Strange," which features a middle-aged gay couple, received an R rating, despite having no sex or nudity.

Some filmmakers took inspiration for sex and nude scenes from real life. For example, "Magic Mike" costume designer Christopher Peterson said he frequented a lot of male strip clubs for research. Peterson told The Ringer that these visits taught him how to design tear-away clothes. Meanwhile, "Anomalisa" puppet supervisor Caroline Kastelic went the extra mile to make sure the main character had a realistic and age-appropriate penis. "I had to do an Internet search of 'old man genitalia,'" she told Complex. "I remember that day and being like 'No, no, no, I don't want to do this.'"

For the film "American Psycho," in which Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) regularly solicits sex workers and films himself having intercourse with them, pornography was crucial to the research process. Bateman doesn't understand much about relationships, so Bale decided that his character would've learned about sex by watching porn and then trying to imitate it. "He got one of the [production assistants] to get us a couple of videos and we both took notes," director Mary Harron told Vulture. She said Bale shared what he learned from his research by drawing stick figures in various obscene positions. According to Harron, "There was one where two girls were giving Bateman a blow job at once. We were laughing, thinking, That's ridiculous and it doesn't make logistical sense, but we'll do it anyway."

Shooting a nude scene can often be awkward and anxiety-inducing. Luckily, actors and directors know some tricks to make sure everyone involved feels at ease. Speaking on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," actor and director John Turturro said, "Really, you try to make your partner feel comfortable. ... I ask them to put the music on sometimes. Sometimes you have a drink, you know?"

Actors may also fall back on humor to break the ice. Michael Fassbender told Vulture, "You tell jokes on set and try to make things as relaxed as possible," insisting that this was crucial for getting the awkwardness out of the way. Meanwhile, Jamie Dornan told "The Graham Norton Show" that he enjoyed making his "Fifty Shades of Gray" co-star Dakota Johnson laugh during sex scenes. Dornan shared that sometimes, when his character was about to climax, he would undercut it with comedy by imitating the triumphant melody you might hear coming from a ballpark organ.

Director Paul Verhoeven was willing to go to great lengths to ensure the cast of "Starship Troopers" felt comfortable stripping for the film's famous shower scene. "One cast member said they would only get naked if we did," Verhoeven recalled in an interview with Empire. "Well ... I have no problem with taking my clothes off, so we did." Turturro also emphasized that being friendly with the crew makes actors more comfortable taking their clothes off.

A common misconception when intimacy coordinators were introduced to film sets was that they only got in the director's way. On the contrary, they can be a huge help to directors. "It is really the director's show, and I am there to help support their vision," intimacy coordinator Jessica Steinrock told Consequence. Steinrock is the CEO of Intimacy Directors and Coordinators and has worked on "Animal Kingdom" and "Little Fires Everywhere."

Another intimacy coordinator, Miriam Lucia, who worked on "House of the Dragon," explained to Deadline, "It's about understanding what it is the director wants from the scene but sometimes being able to intervene and relay that an actor isn't comfortable with that line of thought so that the director has time to rethink it before they get on set." After all, addressing these concerns in advance will prevent filmmakers from wasting time and money on additional takes or reshoots — not to mention the risk of potential lawsuits if an actor feels violated. Lucia argued that the notion that intimacy coordinators eliminate spontaneity is ridiculous, insisting that nothing actors do is completely spontaneous; actors must read the script, discuss it with the director, and get into character. Why should nude scenes be any different?

Ita O'Brien told The Hollywood Reporter that once she establishes clear boundaries, "it means the actors are free to then act." Once the actors know exactly where they can and cannot touch, they can focus on their performance, and perhaps even improvise a little within those established boundaries.

For much of the 20th century, male nudity in movies was only socially acceptable as a punchline. Flaccid penises were largely played for laughs. Sure, there were exceptions, such as "Bad Lieutenant" and "Boogie Nights," but the general rule of thumb was that filmmakers assumed nobody wanted to see a penis.

Thanks to the MPA's inconsistent rating system, filmmakers could show plenty of breasts in an R-rated movie but never an erect penis. However, the rise of cable TV channels like HBO — which fell outside the jurisdiction of the MPA – gave creatives more freedom with nudity. Despite this, many shows simply seized the opportunity to supply the audience with more boobs, without showing equivalent levels of male nudity. Nearly 75% of the nudity in "Game of Thrones" is of female characters. So it's no wonder that Damon Lindelof, showrunner of the HBO series "The Leftovers," told TV Line, "If you're going to do a show on HBO, which is one of the few places where you can do full frontal nudity, there's no excuse not to show more dongs."

While male nudity became much more visible on TV during the 2010s, most of this nudity was associated with either sex or violence. It would take shows like "Euphoria," with its famous locker room scene, to remind viewers that sometimes the male body doesn't need to be about sex or violence — it simply is.

Great care is taken in designing the look of a prosthetic penis. "If I'm honest, it's always a little humorous," makeup artist Doniella Davy, who has worked on "Euphoria" and Amazon's "The Underground Railroad," told Thrillist. According to Davy, "[My fellow makeup artist Jason Collins will] send me pics, and I'll respond back with 'more squishy and floppy' or 'can you put more fake hair on the balls?'"

Matthew W. Mungle shared in an interview with "This Morning" that he doesn't typically need to collect a mold of the actor's private parts. Instead, he will usually sculpt the mold himself or use one of his stock molds from previous projects. A single prosthetic can cost anywhere from $850 to $2,500. Some fake penises are attached with a special glue; these can only be used once. For wider shots (where viewers are more likely to overlook such a fine detail), actors might use a strap-on and then have the straps edited out in post-production. Actors may need to wear this special piece for as long as 14 hours at a time.

No matter how realistic these fake penises may be, makeup artists may still need to add finishing touches — sometimes even while the actor is wearing it. "Minx" makeup artist Carleigh Herbert recalled to The New York Times, "I got on my knees to powder penises. ... It just was kind of part of the process."

Intimacy coordinator Lizzy Talbot, who has worked on "Bridgerton" and "Madame Web," argues masturbation scenes are more challenging than your standard sex scenes. "It's so much harder when you're working solo," she told Business Insider. At least when you're shooting with another actor, she explained, "You've got someone to bounce ideas off of or experiment with, you can work together." Talbot emphasized that with masturbation scenes, it's extra important to know where the actor ends and the character begins. Intimacy coordinators will ask the actor to focus on how the character would pleasure themselves, without bringing the actor's own intimate life into play.

Yet despite these efforts, sometimes actors will still feel exposed. "Dirty Lines" actress Joy Delima said filming masturbation scenes could be terrifying. "Everything I act is fake," she said in an interview at International Film Festival Rotterdam (via ScreenDaily), "but when it came down to intimate scenes, it felt now everyone knows how I look when I orgasm."

"Bridgerton" star Phoebe Dynevor told Glamour, "It's a difficult thing to rehearse, which means you don't. You just do it." Dynevor added that she was glad she had an intimacy coordinator for those particular scenes, saying, "No one wants to be told how to perform orgasm [on set] by a man."