Dealing With The Sex Scene!

The Sex Scene!

By Dani Lennon

Ah, the Love Scene…a sometimes nerve wracking and ungraceful experience…at least in my case. Most actors and actresses will inevitably be faced with the requirement of a love scene or several over the course of their careers. It is to be expected in our line of work where the themes of love, romance and sexuality flow endlessly like wine or champagne at a Holiday party. There is a misconceived notion due to several documented on set affairs between co-stars, that the general public is lead to believe that most love scenes captured on the screen are sexually fulfilling and perhaps fun to shoot. HA!! Don’t get me wrong, I am all for being in the moment and creating a believable connection. I have had wonderful chemistry with my past romantic leads but from my experience most of my sex scenes were absolutely AWKWARD. I am not speaking on behalf of all actors and actresses out there, I can only speak for myself and what I have endured. I have had several love scenes in my budding career but three stick out the most for three different reasons. Join me as I navigate through three very uncomfortable sexual moments on screen. Getting through them, generating a good performance and coming out on top (pun intended thank you very much) much wiser with a stronger handle on professionalism.

The Love Scene Virgin: Awkward love scene number one! I remember my first love scene. I was very nervous as one can imagine. My love interest was not an amateur to love scenes and he was able to calm me down. To my surprise it wasn’t as grievous as I had expected because my fellow Co-star and I had an honest physical and emotional connection that worked perfectly on screen. Once filming was done we left all of that at the door and continued on with our lives as professionals do. A few years later it was my turn to pay it forward and help out a Love Scene Virgin. On the set of a hysterical and witty sex comedy. My fellow actor and I were to capture a drunken and clumsy one night stand. The poor guy was so damn nervous that I could hear his heart beating across the other side of the room seconds before we were about to shoot. I asked the director to give me a few moments to talk with him and to ease his worries. I approached the subject telling my leading guy ‘I know that this is your first love scene and I understand that you are afraid of getting an erection or this turning into something that it is not. I know there a quite a few people watching but I promise you as I have been through a few love scenes before that this will be so robotic and you will be so focused on your performance that there will be no tension and you won’t feel a thing’. The scene went great. It was high energy and absolutely hilarious. My Love Scene Virgin turned out quite the performance. Afterwards he thanked me for my words of wisdom and reassured me that I was correct in my analysis. In fact, he didn’t feel a thing! Hmmmm…didn’t know quite how to take that but a good deed done that deserved a pat on the back!

The Drunken Dad: Awkward love scene number two! Again I found myself on the set of another comedy where I was to film a raunchy sex romp on a copy machine in an office! Mind you it was done in good taste (If you can believe that) with no nudity involved. That silly moment worked for the context of that scene. Of course my leading man and I were tense about the upcoming rollick on the copier. He was married with two children and this was his first ridiculous, absurd but still very funny sex scene. I can understand that. I’m not sure how I would’ve felt had I been in his position but needless to say he avoided me like the plague the entire day before we got to our scene. Out of respect I made sure to give him his space until we needed to shoot. As the end of the day closed and our scene drew near I found my co-star pounding a couple beers in the break room. To which I light heartedly quipped ‘Hey! Where the hell is mine?! If you get to get buzzed so do I’!  Well I’m allergic to beer but not wine! The Producers gave me two glasses and we were ready to roll. The scene was full of stomach grabbing and knee slapping humor. Although a bit embarrassing and ludicrous it was the alcohol and good communication that loosened us up and saved the day.

The Adonis: Awkward Love Scene Number Three! In my opinion I saved the best for last. I was involved with this gut wrenching beautifully shot drama and my love interest literally resembled a god. How could people actually look like that? Not only was he stunning but he was an incredible actor and our scenes were electric. I was thrilled with the work we contributed and could not wait to see the final product. As we were going into our love scene I approached it as professionally as I had before. Although he was attractive and we were portraying these characters, our work was to be finished at the end of the day and left on set. We were both on the same page and all was going well until he chimed in moments before our first take ‘No offense but you’re a little too skinny for my taste…you’re not my type’. Then the Director called ‘Action’!. Well that was a first! I was offended but I made sure to keep my head in the game and do my job. Our love scene was beautiful so even if he found me repulsive he sure didn’t act like it. I couldn’t possibly know what was going through his mind at the time to feel the need to share with me his distaste. Perhaps he was nervous? Perhaps he was talking himself out of being attracted to me so he wouldn’t get visibly excited? Or he really felt that way towards me and had a lack of etiquette. Even so, I didn’t let that remark get in the way of my performance or his for that matter.

These three stand-out love scenes taught me so much about civility, courtesy and respect for the project, myself as well as my fellow actors. We must always be mindful of our Co-Star’s acting space and comfort. No love scene is ever alike and we have to be considerate and candid about our concerns and our chemistry…or lack thereof with our love interests. If you put that all into perspective and coin it into simple terms it means this: When approaching and performing a love scene ALWAYS BE A PROFESSIONAL no matter how uncomfortable, dreadful, exciting or awkward it may be.

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TRUE DETECTIVE: 'The Hollywood Reporter' Review

True Detective: TV Review

by Tim Goodman

The Bottom Line

Two wildly disparate detectives work a homicide case in Louisiana that has occult overtones -- and the ensuing investigation envelops both their professional and private worlds

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are magnetic in HBO's impressive new drama series.

One of the benefits viewers (and critics) reap from continued and sustained excellence in the drama field is that writers and directors, perhaps feeling pushed to stand out even among the best, are experimenting more noticeably with tone, pace, structure and visual impact.

This was clear among some of 2013's best dramas -- like The Returned, Rectify, Broadchurch and others. There was something (sometimes a few things) distinct about them that made astute viewers keenly aware that originality was kicking at the corners of their television sets. And as 2014 kicks off, we can add HBO's magnificent and magnetic anthology series True Detective, which premieres Sunday, Jan. 12 at 9 p.m., to the list.

In fact, even though the new year is just beginning, there's a real certainty that True Detective will be filling up the best-of lists we've all just set aside from the past year. Who will forget this out-of-the-box knockout in 11 months? Nobody paying attention, that's for sure.

True Detective has three immediately impressive attributes. The acting -- by Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson -- is off the charts. The writing and the concept, by series creator and novelist Nic Pizzolatto, undulates from effectively brash soliloquies to penetratingly nuanced moments carried by sparse prose. Lastly, director Cary Joji Fukunaga has created a beautiful, sprawling sense of place (the series is shot and set in Louisiana). With Pizzolatto writing all eight episodes and Fukunaga directing all eight, there's an overt sense of shared vision going on (at least in the four episodes sent by HBO). Perhaps that's why this series seems so immediately self-assured, as if it was already in its third season. No doubt the chemistry between McConaughey and Harrelson is the driving force behind that.

True Detective is about two disparate detectives brought together on a murder investigation with occult overtones and a strong whiff of serial killer sophistication. It's the kind of case that Louisiana's Criminal Investigation Division hasn't seen before.

Credit Pizzolatto with both an assured sense of craftsmanship in the structure and a novelist's flourish in the telling of the story. The series moves deftly between 1995 when detectives Martin Hart (Harrelson) and Rust Cohle (McConaughey) start working the case and 2012, when both men are being interviewed -- separately -- by two detectives working a new case that has strong similarities (elements unknown to the public, which would seem to rule out a copycat).

Flashing back and forth and revealing bits of the case and personal bits of both Hart and Cohle keeps viewers hooked on each track, while the technique also provides a glimpse at how their relationship changed all the people around them over time.

Is an occult/serial killer premise new? Is the concept of disparate partners chaffing against each other a fresh one? Of course not. And that's why True Detective earns its praise -- familiar storytelling conceits are enlivened by the stellar, riveting performances of McConaughey and Harrelson, the tone-shifting writing devices of Pizzolatto and Fukunaga's ability to nail an establishing shot of Louisiana's vast, contrasting features while also experimenting with fugue states and off-kilter framing.

Put them together and you've got a series that sneaks up on you because it seems both familiar and unfamiliar simultaneously. Just when you think Hart and Cohle are clashingly disparate -- Hart the older school detective and Cohle the book-smart profiler -- Pizzolatto mashes up their backstories to cast doubt on any assumptions.

More impressively, McConaughey and Harrelson look astonishingly different from 1995 to 2002 and in 2012. The physical transformations are incredible.

There's a lot of other fine work being done beyond those actors -- including Michelle Monaghan as Maggie Hart and Kevin Dunn as Hart and Cohle's boss. And the present day interviews conducted by the new detectives -- played Michael Potts and Tory Kittles, also hint at where True Detective might go in its next incarnation.

The plan is for these eight episodes to be contained, with a new story and new actors kicking in each season, though the storytelling structure will remain the same.

Would it be something truly special to see McConaughey and Harrelson keep at it for another eight -- or 16 episodes? Hell yes. It's a tour-de-force by the duo. But there's nothing wrong with keeping things fresh either -- especially if Pizzolatto stays involved.

On top of all of this, by the way, T Bone Burnett supervises the music for True Detective and the impact is visceral -- moody when needed, full-blown songs mimicking the moods on screen and everything evocative and a contributing factor to the excellence.

True Detective, coming as it does after what was arguably the best year for dramas in at least five years (really saying something in our continued Renaissance period), just puts an exclamation point on the topic of excessive quality. Who knew the bar would be set so high so early?

True Detective Season 1: Tested (HBO)

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