Sex on The Americans
6 of the spy drama’s hottest scenes
A lot of thought goes into the sex scenes on FX’s cold-war-era spy drama, The Americans. Take the show’s infamous “69” scene between Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys), a pair of KGB operatives posing as a married couple based in the US. “We were looking for something that expressed mutuality but also great intimacy,” the series’s creator, Joe Weisberg (a former CIA officer), told Time magazine. “You’ll notice that the choice we landed on didn’t involve dominance,” added his colleague, Joel Fields. “Philip wasn’t on top, and Elizabeth wasn’t on top. That was a specific choice.” Although the show is filled with pulse-racing scenes of espionage, the central focus is the challenge of forging a successful marriage, which includes (as the series amply illustrates) taking the time to physically reconnect in the middle of a grueling workweek. And since this husband and wife are often out on undercover missions, their marriage is also tested by the fact that they often have sex—while in disguise—with other people as a means of furthering their cause. The mix of marital intimacy and adulterous role-play make the sex scenes on The Americans some of the most engaging in TV history.