Audiences know that Netflix is nothing is not flush with content, but even with all of the options available on the service, which debut at a sometimes dizzying clip, people still find and become obsessed with certain new releases. A recent case of this involves the new drama, Sex/Life, which just so happens to feature a lot of sex across its eight-episode freshman season. If you think that engaging in all of those simulated sexytimes is a wondrous thing, though, star Adam Demos has revealed why sex scenes are difficult to get "carried away" in.
Adam Demos plays bad boy (i.e. toxic manipulator) Brad Simon in the Sex/Life cast, and as the ex-boyfriend of Billie (Sarah Shahi), who's begun to fantasize about their wild relationship to alleviate the dullness of her marriage to Cooper (Mike Vogel) and motherhood in the suburbs, he's seen enjoying quite a few intriguing sexytimes, mostly as Billie remembers their past. While several of the scenes have likely proven to be very titillating for viewers, Demos spoke to Australia's The Kyle & Jackie O Show about what it's like to film sex scenes, and why they're not sexy to film at all.
When asked what it was like to do a "full on" sex scene like many of the ones in Sex/Life, Adam Demos said:
It's not, I mean, hopefully it looks convincing, but it's so mechanical, it's ridiculous. People ask if you get carried away, but you've got sound guys and cameramen right around you with the big beards. That's a bit of a turn off.
As you might know, filming sex scenes in movies and TV shows are pretty much never the free-for-alls that they appear to be. Not only is every move and camera angle thoroughly planned out beforehand and rehearsed, but productions also now use intimacy coordinators to help with the process, who are also present while filming said scenes, so that if anyone ever feels uncomfortable and changes need to be made, they can assist with those changes. On top of that, as Adam Demos noted, there does need to be at least some crew around, so it's not at all like engaging in an actual intimate moment.
Of course, as Demos also pointed out, the goal is still to make sure that the resulting scenes are as convincing as possible, and, I think that many viewers would agree that Sex/Life managed to nail things in that regard. Even knowing that all of the many (many) horizontal (and vertical) mambos which occurred in the series were completely orchestrated, nothing ever made me think about that fact while watching them. The naughty times in Sex/Life might not look quite as gobsmackingly real as they did in, say, 365 Days, but they're still nothing to shake a prosthetic dong at.
For those wondering, the oddly mechanical nature of shooting such scenes goes further for Adam Demos, who also noted that wearing the modesty coverings provided so that the actors' genitals don't touch, doesn't really help things either, and said:
It's a closed set, but you've got modesty... I look like a Ken doll, which is embarrassing.
Well, luckily for Adam Demos, all of his hard work helping to put together the sexytimes in Sex/Life seems to have paid off, as the show has consistently been in the Netflix Top 10 since it debuted on June 25. When asked recently how he approached filming the sex scenes for the new show by Entertainment Weekly, Demos said that because those scenes reveal so much about the characters' emotions, it was a matter of breaking it down as one would any other scene, then added:
You discuss everything: hand movements, everything down to the breath. In sex scenes, the breathing is an emotional thing, so you're discussing that journey, but then you're also discussing each individual's comfort level...I was okay with [the nudity] because you read the script and know what you're getting yourself into from the start, so I don't think you would sign on to a show after reading the scripts and then say no last minute. That doesn't mean you can't have discussions about comfort level, which they allowed us to have - and with the intimacy coordinator, so it felt a lot safer.
We don't know yet if the surprising Sex/Life Season 1 ending will be answered in a second season, because that hasn't been given the greenlight as of now, but you can look into all the upcoming romantic TV shows, and see what to watch right now with our 2021 summer TV schedule!
