Featured Image Credit: Jacopo Raule/WireImage
Topics: Sex and Relationships
William Morgan
Shooting a film with real, unsimulated sex scenes in it would be a daunting task for even the most experienced actor, but for some of the stars on the set of a 2013 drama, what they had to do was downright 'humiliating'.
The two-part erotic film series by the highly-regarded Danish director Lars Von Trier contains a number of controversial intimate scenes, showing its star-studded cast in full nudity and even engaging in sexual acts with each other.
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and II have achieved something of a cult status as a result, though fans of the films often advise others to 'watch it alone' due to the constant nudity and sex scenes throughout.
And these movies have some big names in them, including: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Jean-Marc Barr, Connie Nielsen, and Mia Goth - but for some of them, the project was a little awkward.
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The actor behind the titular nymphomaniac, Gainsbourg, told Vanity Fair in 2014 about the difficulties of stripping off on set and acting out sexual behavior.
She revealed: "I think, just in regards to the sexual things, the fellatio was hardest."
Gainsbourg explained that this was because 'it’s very intimate, and there was something quite humiliating about the whole thing'.
She clarified that it was 'not on a real d*ck' that she was filmed fellating, with Von Trier hiring adult stars to work as body doubles for the full-on sex scenes throughout the films.
Other actors from Nymphomaniac have spoken about the difficulties they had on set though, surprisingly, many believed that the female stars had it easier.
Skarsgård, one of the director's closest collaborators, told the publication that 'the actresses usually love to work with [Von Trier],' due to the quality of their characters.
However, it was when Gainsbourg had to shoot some promos for the film that she was really pushed out of her comfort zone.
The actor shared how she had to do a photoshoot for the movie posters, which bared the caption 'show us your "O" face', but she hated every minute as she felt safe acting sexually around the director, but not others.
"The photographer was very sweet," she said. "But he wasn’t Lars, and to go that far, just pretending an orgasm, without Lars, was suddenly awkward."
But the hardest part for the film's leads, Skarsgard and Gainsbourg, wasn't even the constant stripping off or having to fake orgasms for random photographers, it was actually the demanding script.
Skarsgård explained how the director often wrote better roles for women, but he had apparently been told that this time would be different.
"He promised me that this one would be the best male role he’s ever written. And I said to him, ‘Well, that doesn’t mean much, you know,’" he revealed, adding that when he got his lines, the role might have been too well-written.
"Me and Charlotte had about 90 pages of text," Skarsgård said. "It’s so much dialogue, it was really hard."
While some films carefully craft scenes just for the camera, others actually go all the way and feature unsimulated sex scenes.
Starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist follows a couple who carry out acts of sexual behaviour and sadomasochism when they initially sought safety in a cabin.
With the main theme of religion as its backdrop, the actors are replaced with body doubles and have intercourse by a dead tree, where bodies are kept in the exposed roots - making for a very uneasy watch.
Vincent Gallo wrote, directed and starred in his 2003 movie The Brown Bunny alongside Chloë Sevigny.
A scene that drew significant controversy at the time shows Sevigny’s character performing unsimulated oral sex on Gallo, something she later dubbed 'very complicated'.
She told Playboy in 2001 that the scene elicited 'a lot of emotions', adding: "I'll probably have to go to therapy at some point."
But Sevigny went on to admit: "But I love Vincent. The film is tragic and beautiful, and I'm proud of it and my performance.
"I'm sad that people think one way of the movie, but what can you do? I've done many explicit sex scenes, but I'm not that interested in doing any more. I'm more self-aware now and wouldn't be able to be as free, so why even do it?"
Gaspar Noé’s film follows a passionate couple who introduce a third person to their relationship, which they later regret as she becomes pregnant.
Starring Aomi Muyock, Karl Glusman and Klara Kristin as the throuple, it follows the characters as they break up and one is left with the third in a loveless relationship.
The unsimulated sex scenes are pretty shocking and even include a graphic ejaculation scene.
The flick sees Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley take part in a number of sex scenes - something the latter has spoken out about.
Addressing the heavy backlash the 9 Songs received, Stilley told LADbible: "It's a shame that it's been torn apart into these little pieces and bastardised online, to be honest."
In the 2001 release Intimacy, actors Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox engage in an unsimulated oral sex scene.
Reflecting on the movie, Rylance said it was the 'most difficult job' he's taken on in his career.
He explained: "I was convinced it was a vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London.
"Hanif Kureishi's writing couldn't have been more intimate and revealing, but I found the making of the film and the subsequent publicity and personal attacks very, very painful. I wish I hadn't made it."
Meanwhile, Fox claimed it was 'not one of her regrets'.