A surprising list of mainstream films that feature real sex
From genuine masturbation scenes to porn stars being used as body doubles, these are the Hollywood movies that didn’t fake their sex scenes
Much has been written and said about the sex scene in recent years. There was ‘too much’ sex on screen, then there was no sex on screen, and now the sex scene is kinda back — sometimes in a hyper-realistic way (à la Normal People) and sometimes in an outrageous, made-to-shock way (looking at you, Saltburn and Poor Things).
Amid the noise, though, one thing’s for sure: sex on screen has been infinitely improved — both for actors and viewers — with the arrival of intimacy coordinators on set. This is evident in recent steamy films and shows like Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Bridgerton, and Sex Education, whose sex scenes have all been praised for their genuine eroticism.
And, whether because of intimacy coordinators’ influence or not, more and more of us are pining after sex on screen. In Cosmopolitan UK’s recent survey, in which we asked over 300 of you for your thoughts on sex scenes, 93% of you said you’re very much in favour of on-screen sex, with over half of you wishing there was more sex in films and TV and 26% of you filthy lot rewinding and rewatching your fave sexy scenes.
But did you know that there’s some mainstream (non-porn) films that don’t just depict simulated sex, but actually feature genuine penetration, oral sex, and more? Well, there are — and, surprisingly, this isn’t just a thing of the past, with the 2021 film Bad Luck Banging and Loony Porn opening with an explicit, real sex scene.
Below, we’ve rounded up nine films that feature unsimulated sex (all done with the consent of the actors and/or porn stars who acted as body doubles) — and you might be surprised by some familiar names.
9 films featuring unsimulated sex
Little Ashes (2008)
Ahead of his debut as Edward Cullen in Twilight, Robert Pattinson starred in a film called Little Ashes. Directed by Paul Morrison, the movie follows the 1920s meeting and love affair of then-unknown artists, surrealist painter Salvador Dalí (Pattinson) and poet Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltrán).
During one scene, Pattinson was asked to simulate masturbation — but, feeling he couldn’t realistically convey the moment of climax, he decided to actually masturbate instead. Speaking to German magazine Interview in 2013, he said: “My orgasm face is recorded for eternity. It just doesn’t work [trying to fake it], so I rubbed one out in front of the camera.”
Love (2015)
If you think unsimulated sex in mainstream movies is rare, having the opportunity to watch them in 3D is even rarer — but that’s exactly what you get with Gaspar Noé’s 2015 film Love, which features a genuine 3D ejaculation scene. The film centres on the romance between Murphy (Karl Glusman) and his ex Electra (Aomi Myock), with the unsimulated sex happening in flashbacks of their relationship.
According to IndieWire, the script was rumoured to only be seven pages long, with Noé letting the actors improvise during sex scenes. Speaking to The Irish Examiner in 2015, the director said of the film: “Almost every [male] actor I approached about doing the specific scenes was happy to do it. Men have no issues, especially about showing their penis erect.”
On that ejaculation scene, he noted that it was 70% as it happened, but that he added one additional spray aimed squarely at the audience. Ah, cinema.
Dogtooth (2009)
Yorgos Lanthimos’ 2009 psychological drama has it all: child and animal abuse, incest, and unsimulated sex. It’s not clear exactly which sex scene in Dogtooth is unsimulated, but, according to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), it’s in there. The film is about a husband and wife who keep their children essentially captive, sheltering them from the outside world, and thus forcing them to make their own (sometimes questionable) entertainment.
Shortbus (2006)
Much of the sex in John Cameron Mitchell’s erotic comedy-drama Shortbus is unsimulated, including threesomes, queer sex, ejaculations, and a scene featuring Mitchell himself. The film is set in a post-9/11 New York City and revolves around a weekly social/artistic sexual salon, during which people talk, hang out, and, if they want to, have sex.
Reflecting on the film in 2022, the director told IndieWire: “A lot of films had used sex, but they were pretty grim, and I wanted something more fun and funny, but still emotionally deep. And so I said [to the actors]: ‘I never want you to do anything you don’t want to do, but I do want you to challenge yourselves so we can challenge the audience.’” He added that the film isn’t about sex, but rather “uses sex as a medium; as a delivery system for ideas, characters, and emotions”.
Pink Flamingos (1972)
The first of John Waters’ ‘Trash Trilogy’, Pink Flamingos doesn’t just feature unsimulated sex — specifically, real oral sex between drag queen Divine and the actor (Danny Mills) playing her son — but also genuine consumption of, er, dog shit. Yep, soundtracked by “How Much is That Doggy in the Window?”, Divine actually eats fresh dog poo (he apparently didn’t swallow it).
The film, which follows Divine competing with a pair of criminals for the title of ‘filthiest people alive’, also features murder, sexual violence, castration, and a load of other outrageous stuff. “To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about,” Waters wrote in one of his memoirs, Shock Value. “If someone vomits watching one of my films, it’s like getting a standing ovation.”
Starlet (2012)
Sean Baker’s Starlet follows the unlikely friendship between two women, 21-year-old porn star Jane (Dree Hemingway) and 85-year-old Sadie (Besedka Johnson — in her first and last ever film role, as she died a year after Starlet’s release). The sex isn’t the star of the show in this film, but there is one unsimulated sex scene involving Jane — though a body double was used in place of Hemmingway.
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021)
If you go searching for Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn — Radu Jude’s 2021 satirical drama film about a teacher (Katia Pascariu) whose sex tape gets leaked — on mainstream platforms, you’re unlikely to see any unsimulated sex. The uncensored version of the film opens with said sex tape, which features real oral and penetrative sex (starring a porn actor), but on many streaming services, this moment is swapped out for a text box describing the acts instead of showing them. Cowards!
Cruising (1980)
Loosely based on New York Times reporter Gerald Walker’s novel about a serial killer targeting gay men in the 1970s leather scene, William Friedkin’s Cruising stars Al Pacino as the detective trying to catch him. To do so, he goes undercover into the world of S&M in New York’s Meatpacking District — cue: a murder scene that also features unsimulated sex, by way of a gay porno film. The movie was highly controversial, with NYC’s gay community protesting its production, claiming it stigmatised them. After seeing the finished film, Pacino described it as “exploitative”, never promoted it, and donated the money he made from it to charity.
Ken Park (2002)
Larry Clark’s films are never a walk in the park, and Ken Park is no exception. Co-directed with Edward Lachman, the film revolves around the abusive and dysfunctional lives of a group of teenagers, whose friend kills himself at the start of the film. The film was banned in Australia because of its sexually-explicit content, with the country’s film classification board saying it contained scenes of “actual sex by people depicted as minors”. This is only part true, with Clark asserting that all the sex in the film is simulated, except one scene showing a youth masturbating, in which the actor genuinely masturbated (all the actors were over 18).
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