Hollywood Actress Describes Onscreen Sex Partners: "They Sweat, They Redden, They Harden"

BY Josiah HughesPublished Apr 19, 2016

From Titanic to The Watchmen to Naked Gun, sex scenes are a major element of movie-making. And while there's a wide variety of positions, locations and pairings on display in Hollywood sex scenes, they all have one thing in common — they're awkward as hell for the actors involved.

The Guardian has just published an article from an anonymous Hollywood actress who goes into painstaking detail to describe just how uncomfortable sex scenes can be. While they don't name the author, they mention that she's been nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes. 

The actress opens up about the stress that impending sex scenes can cause in her personal life.

"I once had an anxiety dream about having to do a sex scene the night before I had to do a sex scene," she wrote. "It was the most bizarre experience to wake up in horror, then to feel the massive wash of relief that it was just a dream only to be hit with the realization that it was about to be real. That's some meta shit right there."

She then goes on to explain that while the sex is simulated, it can often be a strangely intimate experience to roll around with a semi-nude partner. "This is largely to do with the fact that your body doesn't know that what's happening isn't real," she said. "The body reacts as bodies in those moments of intimacy do – they sweat, they redden, they harden.

"The hardening part was once skillfully addressed by an actor I was about to have crazy sex with, with a sanguine: 'Forgive me if I do, forgive me if I don't.' It gives a whole new spin on performance anxiety."

She also shares some tips for completing sex scenes with actors you can't stand to be around. "During the initial choreographing of one particular sex scene with an actor I really didn't get along with, I volunteered the idea of him pressing me up against a wall and doing it from behind largely so I wouldn't have to look at his smug, straining exertions," she wrote.

"This also worked another time when an actor had profound halitosis. I managed, on that project, to make NOT kissing him an actual theme. The director thought it added a 'layer.'"

Read the anonymous actress's full piece on onscreen sex scenes here.

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