I really need some insight from someone I don’t have to look in the face! I’m a young actor who is trying to get some info on the behind-the-scenes etiquette of filming a sex scene. (Cable-series sex, not adult-movie sex.) I’ve done theater and some extra work in film, but up to now I’ve never done sex/nudity. However, the time has come: I’m in a real sex scene, and I’m not sure how to conduct myself on the set! I’d like to go in with some knowledge of common courtesies. Are there established guidelines for this? How do I find out what is or isn’t OK to say, do, touch, look at, get close to, or linger around? Please tell me that somewhere in your travels you’ve met someone or read something or that you know of a book that will answer these kinds of questions! –TV-MA
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Mitchell has been a professional actor for 20 years, and he knows more than most about filming sex scenes, having made out before the cameras with numerous women (see Girl Six, Book of Love) and the occasional man (see Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which he wrote, directed, and starred in). One of the most important things you can do, according to Mitchell, is to take control of the scene. “Make it a conspiracy among the actors,” he says. “Tell the director what you want. Do you need some time alone on the set? A cleared set? Make demands.”
One quibble with your letter, TV-MA: You’ve been hired to do a sex scene in a film, not have “real sex.” American movies don’t show real sex, only simulated sex–at least until John Cameron Mitchell’s next film comes out. “I want to make a film that uses real sex but that is also a real film–narratively, emotionally,” he says. “The French are doing it,” in movies like Baise-moi and Romance, “but it’s de-eroticized and pretentious. In other words, French. So why are Americans, and American filmmakers, so afraid of sex? They’re doing it in Europe. Why can’t we do it here?”
Here we are, only three weeks into the new year, and I’ve already done two good deeds. You’re welcome, Mark.
So, GTKINS, here’s what you need to do: March your ass into your buddy’s apartment and hand him the picture of Pete Townshend sitting in the back of a police car as investigators carry his personal computers out of his house. Then tell your buddy what you saw and insist that he (a) get help and (b) get a baseball bat. He needs the help so that he never, ever acts on his attraction to young kids; he needs the baseball bat so he can smash his computer–which could be used as evidence against him–into a hundred thousand pieces. This is a very serious business, GTKINS, and your friend needs help before he destroys his own life or the life of some poor kid. As his closest friend, GTKINS, it’s your job to make your buddy as uncomfortable as possible as quickly as possible.
