Actor from non-pornographic film with real sex in it explains how it actually worked

Sex in movies is nothing new... but you find nine times out of ten find that the sex part is actually not real.

When you think of racy movies you think of the likes of Fifty Shades Of Gray, 365 Days and Lady Chatterley's Lover - though despite the way it looks, no actual sex is involved.

It's a known fact that actors have to pretend to have intercourse with one another, and many stars have labelled it as an extremely 'awkward' thing to do.

But that's fake sex, incredibly some non-pornographic films actually have real sex in them, with one of them being 2013's Stranger by the Lake.

The French drama is in fact the most recent movie to feature proper sex, as it tells the story of main man Franck falling in love with Michel, who he meets at a nudist beach.

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A synopsis for Stranger by the Lake reads: "Summertime. A cruising spot for men, tucked away on the shores of a lake. Franck falls in love with Michel, an attractive, potent and lethally dangerous man. Franck knows this but wants to live out his passion anyway."

The film was very successful, grabbing the directing prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and featuring high on critics' film of the year lists.

In a discussion with The Arts Desk in 2014, actors Pierre Deladonchamps and Christophe Paou, who played Franck and Michel, discussed how the sex scenes actually worked.

The acting pair actually had body doubles for the explicit parts, but how exactly did that play out?

Paou started off: "Yes. We called them stunt doubles," while Deladonchamps added: "We’d make love, then we’d stop, these guys would replace us and do it for real. It was very funny the day I met my stunt dick. 'Pierre, let me introduce you to your d*ck'."

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Elsewhere in the interview, Deladonchamps revealed that the director of Stranger by the Lakes, Alain Guiraudie, actually joined in the actors in being nude.

For those that haven't seen the film, it features an awful lot of nudist scenes, even when the characters are not getting it on.

So the cast did not feel left out, Guiraudie joined in with the naked festivities while shooting.

When asked if the director joined them naked, Deladonchamps revealed: "He did. And also during the rehearsal, to make us more comfortable.

"Actually, he’s in the movie – he’s the first person my character meets on the beach. He’s a naturist himself. But you know, when we got to the set I dealt with the nudity by just telling myself, 'It’s a costume, it’s not me'."