ANATOMY OF A SEX SCENE

BY: Amanda Jane Stern

Shooting a sex scene is a lot of work. That statement is not to be taken flippantly. There are a multitude of things to take into account when filming intimacy for the screen. Each actor has their own rules about what parts of their body they are willing to show on camera, where they are ok being touched by someone, or by themselves, where they are comfortable touching someone else, what kind of kissing they are good with, and so on and so forth. It is the director’s job to make sure that the scene looks the best that it can while also making sure that the actors’ still feel safe and respected. It is that last part, the one about keeping actors safe, that many productions have run afoul of. Consequently, a new position was born, that of the intimacy coordinator. Here at PROVOKR, we have already run several pieces on the importance of intimacy coordinators. You can check out our interview with IC Teniece Divya Johnson, or this piece by yours truly about the process of working with an IC on the set of my own film Perfectly Good Moment.

In keeping with our commitment to champion safe sex on screen, we are starting a new monthly column called Anatomy of a Sex Scene. Each entry will take a look at a notable sex scene from film or television and break it down. We will not write a play-by-play of the scene, but we will include a video clip of the scene, the script pages, or both. We will discuss the background on how the scene was made, what safeguards (if any) were put in place for the actors, and more. For our first entry, we are starting with the first sex scene between Sook-Hee (Kim Tae-ri) and Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee) in The Handmaiden.

Upon first watching The Handmaiden you will likely be struck by how erotic the movie is, and how graphic its sex scenes. And yes, this movie was made by a cis-het man, which may give you pause. While there definitely has been debate whether the sex scenes in this film are too male-gazey, with some people feeling they are, while others laud the sex scenes, that is not what we are going to focus on. What we are going to discuss is to what lengths the director, Park Chan-wook, went to make sure that his actresses were comfortable with everything going on.

During the screenwriting process, Chan-wook and his co-writer, Seo-kyeong Jeong, sought the advice of a queer female friend to help craft the sexual content between the two women. While shooting the sex scenes in this film, Chan-wook instructed all crew to leave the room where the scene was taking place. The only people allowed on the hot set were the two actresses, as well as a female boom operator. Chan-wook himself stood outside of the room at the monitor. The camera was handled via remote control so that the camera operator did not have to be in the room with the performers. The male crew members were also given the day off to keep the number of people around the set as minimal as possible.

Chan-wook made sure to extensively discuss the sex scenes with Min-hee and Tae-ri well before shooting even commenced so that they could go over exactly what they were comfortable doing and showing. They then rehearsed the scenes while fully clothed and talking through what would be done, this ensured that once they got to set to film the scenes, they could be shot in as few takes as possible and then move on. However you feel about the sex scenes in this film, there is no denying that Chan-wook went about filming them in the best way possible to ensure he got what he wanted on camera, but both of his actresses felt safe and respected the entire time.