Set in swimming pools, libraries, spaceships and pretty much anywhere else you can think of, audiences love watching characters act out wildly unrealistic love scenes. But the less-than-thrilling truth behind filming a Hollywood love scene is that it involves choreography, trust, intrusive make-up, legal contracts, and a whole lot of awkwardness.
For this reason, most actors agree that shooting a romantic moment is one of the most uncomfortable parts of their job. Some even refuse to shoot them altogether, or insist on toning down the more sensational aspects. As a famous example, after getting her big break playing a sex worker in Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts now refuses to do nude scenes and anything else she deems too risqué. For instance, she asked to de-raunchify a love scene between her and Clive Owen’s characters in the 2009 thriller Duplicity, saying that the hot and heavy stuff is “not really what I do.”
But not every actor has approached love scenes with Roberts’ reluctance — or her star power. And unfortunately, that means that some look back on certain steamy scenes with a pang of regret. Whether it’s down to the wrong scene partner, the wrong setting, or even injury, these are the love scenes actors regret filming, and why they’d take them back if they could.
Jennifer Lawrence felt guilty over her Passengers se’x scene
Jennifer Lawrence has had romantic scenes with several of Hollywood’s dreamiest leading men, including Bradley Cooper, Liam Hemsworth and Nicholas Hoult. She’s won a highly coveted Best Kiss MTV Movie Award (and been nominated twice more.) But 2016’s sci-fi drama Passengers was the first time Lawrence shot a love scene that went beyond kissing, opposite another famously handsome co-star, Chris Pratt. And Lawrence wasn’t entirely comfortable with the premise.
“It was weird — and everything was done right, it wasn’t anybody’s fault, nobody did anything wrong. It’s just a bizarre experience,” she said. Her discomfort stemmed from guilt that Pratt was married (to actress Anna Faris) at the time. Lawrence recounted, “It was going to be my first time even kissing a married man, and guilt is like the worst feeling in your stomach.”
The scene came back to haunt Lawrence months after Passengers had left theaters. Pratt and Faris announced that they were separating in August 2017, and unfounded rumors started spreading that Lawrence was somehow involved. Lawrence called it the weirdest rumor she’d heard about herself, pointing out that the split came two years after they’d shot Passengers together. Fortunately Faris took the high road, writing in her memoir Unqualified that she and Lawrence are on friendly terms, and that Lawrence, “was apologetic even though she didn’t need to be, because she hadn’t done anything wrong.”
This James Bond star minded the age gap
The James Bond franchise is famous for steamy scenes between the titular super spy and a series of stunningly beautiful women. But those bedroom scenes don’t always go as smoothly backstage.
Roger Moore was a Bond veteran by the time he filmed 1985’s A View to a Kill, the last of his seven films in the franchise. You could say he was a life veteran too: 57 at the film’s release, he was the joint oldest actor to play the role, with David Niven. But the women Bond seduces stay eternally young. One of his conquests in the film, May Day, is played by model and musician Grace Jones, who was 20 years Moore’s junior. And boy, did their age gap create tension on set.
In his memoir, Moore remembered that Jones would play loud music in her dressing room, which meant he couldn’t get his afternoon nap. Moore admitted that after unsuccessfully asking Jones to turn the music down, he got so annoyed he threw a chair at the dressing room wall. As he dryly observed, this did not help set the mood for their yet-to-be-shot sex scene.
It may have made things extra awkward on set, but Jones didn’t hold Moore’s outburst against him forever. After his death in 2017, she described him as “a great gentleman” and said, “He will always remain one of my best experiences in my filming career.”
Juliette Danielle regrets a very specific part of The Room
You could argue that there are a lot of moments the actors who appear in notorious flop The Room could regret. But in a Reddit AMA, Juliette Danielle — who plays Lisa, the woman at the center of a hilariously melodramatic love triangle — brought up one thing in particular. Danielle said that the first time she saw one of the movie’s famously long sex scenes, she was “mortified.” Unbeknownst to her, a rose petal had stuck to her back, and on the big screen it looks a lot like a scab — not exactly the physical attribute you would choose to display to theaters full of strangers at midnight screenings.
Another director might have used a different edit to spare his actress, but not eccentric Tommy Wiseau. Danielle said that shooting the film’s sex scenes was uncomfortable but “pretty standard … The only difference is that Tommy used ALL the footage … rather than whittling it down to a short sequence like most do.”
There was something else Danielle regretted about those particular scenes. She said that she’s not sorry that she made the movie, because its led to other opportunities, and she’s come to terms with being “Lisa from The Room” forever. But she noted, “I did regret making it only because of the nudity thing.”
Read More: https://www.looper.com/205681/love-scenes-actors-regret-filming/