BY: Amanda Jane Stern

Have you ever watched a a sex scene in a movie? That’s not so unusual, but have you ever found yourself sitting there and thinking, something IS different here…this one isn’t shot to artfully obscure bare bodies. Instead, THIS sex scene looks super real. So you go online to figure out, wait, were the actors actually having sex? Below are 5 movies with incredibly realistic, albeit simulated, sex scenes.

Blue is the Warmest Color (2013)

The intimate acts in this Abdellatif Kechiche romance caused quite a stir. Given the explicit nature, viewers thought that leads Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos were actually having sex. However before filming began, both actresses stipulated that they would not have real sex on camera. Instead, prosthetic vagina molds matching the performer’s body parts were used. It was shot over a period of 10 days to enhance the realism. That’s a long time to film one scene, then again, it is a notoriously long and sexy encounter.

Blue Valentine (2010)

You may already know what scene we’re talking about in this Derek Cianfrance drama. Because of it, the film got slapped with the MPAA’s dreaded NC17 rating. However, after an appeal, the box office poison rating was upgraded to an R. While not as explicit as other movies on the list, the electrical connection between Ryan Gosling (Dean) and Michelle Williams (Cindy) make the sex look so real. It earned that NC17 because they simulated performing oral sex on each other. It is a sex scene both hollow and haunting. While the MPAA isn’t a fan of female pleasuring on screen, combine it with melancholy and the organization is sure to be perturbed.

A History of Violence (2005)

The staircase sex scene in this David Cronenberg movie is not as explicit as other scenes on this list. That doesn’t mean it looks any less real. Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) stars as a man who confronts the rage within him after killing two men in self defense. In this famous scene, Tom gets into a fight with his wife Edie (Maria Bello). When he closes his hands around her throat, he is disgusted by his own violence. However, she is immediately aroused and pulls him back to her. It’s a scene that is both raw and terrifying. When the camera cuts to Tom removing Edie’s underpants and unbuttoning his own pants, you may briefly wonder, is it happening? Some viewers are convinced that the two actors were actually having sex. Chances are, it was just really well choreographed sex.

Shame (2011)

This Steve McQueen drama introduced us to actor Michael Fassbender’s massive member. His Fass-member if you will. The film follows Brandon (Fassbender), a man with a paralyzing sex addiction. As you can imagine, this movie is chock-full of sex and nudity, including full-frontal shots. The most glaring though, is the threesome among Brandon and two women. At first glance it looks like an artfully shot, fully nude sex scene, but, then wait and rewind. Did you just see what you think you saw? Did Fassbender really have doggy-style sex with that woman? Is that a real rim job? No, the sex in this movie is fully simulated so don’t think too hard about how they did it, just enjoy.

Stranger by the Lake (2013)

Initially, filmmaker Alain Guiraudie wanted to hire porn actors for this gay thriller. He nixed that idea when he didn’t think their acting measured up to their other “performance” abilities. Instead, he hired professionals Pierre Deladonchamps and Christophe Paou to star as the leads. While they don’t actually engage in sex with each other, they do spend most of the movie fully nude. The sex scene that really stands out is about 40 minutes into the film when Franck (Deladonchamps) and Michel (Paou) sneak off for some fun. Guiraudie alternated using porn actors, prosthetic penises and the regular cast to create some of the more graphic scenes. However, there is a moment where if you look really, really hard you see that Paou is not actually stimulating Deladonchamps’ little champ.