Preparing for an Intimate Scene
Everything is organised and tomorrow you’ll shoot your intimate scene so let’s prepare some basics.
Did you know that when you kiss someone you exchange something in the region of 250 colonies of bacteria? That’s some 5 million individual bacteria swapping homes during a passionate embrace! (Ok, we’d better clarify that not all those bacteria are harmful, in fact a lot of them do a body good so you might actually be helping someone stay healthy by kissing them.)
But bearing that in mind… try and stay healthy, if not for yourself then at least for your kissing partner!
Here are a few basic tips:
- If one of you smokes, try and kick the habit at least for that day.
- If you have a cold, then let everyone else know in plenty of time; you may be able to get the scene shoot postponed.
- Clean your teeth and carry a mouth spray! If you have to kiss someone or even get right in their face it’s only fair of you to have fresh breath. (Especially true if you’re shooting in the afternoon after lunch.)
- Likewise, make sure you shower beforehand and use light deodorant!
- And if you’re suffering from nerves and are tempted to take a drink, don’t. It’s unprofessional and simply not worth it in the long run. You will hear stories about different actors who have supposedly taken a drink to steel themselves for a particularly difficult scene, but if you are a professional actor you don’t need this.
For more on how to make a kiss seem convincing, see here.
Blocking
However, assuming you are smelling like a rose and utterly sober, before the scene shoot begins make sure you sit down with the other actor and the director and work out exactly what you are going to do in the scene.
If you are lucky enough to have an intimacy coordinator, be sure to work with them and listen carefully to what they say. Otherwise, with the other actor (and someone else in the room) work out the details now. It needs to be a frank conversation.
- Exactly what parts of the body are to be touched and how and when during the scene?
- Do we use tongues when kissing? Does your partner in the scene agree? Which way will you face when kissing?
- What clothes stay on or off?
- etc…
Intimate scenes tend to make actors nervous so part of the reason for this kind of preparation is to make sure that you are both comfortable with what is about to happen and by talking about it beforehand you know what to expect and are thus more relaxed and you won’t fear any surprises.
And yes, you do have to be very, very, specific here and spell out exactly what you will be doing and what will be done to you. And of course if the other actor or director suggests something which you are not comfortable with now is the last chance you have to object so do speak your mind!
“I look at sex scenes like I do fight scenes. They have to be choreographed so there’s no bumping of heads or accidental slippage. That way, no one gets hurt!” enCAST actor John B.
The advice about treating sex scenes like fight scenes is incredibly useful. If you plan ahead and work out what will happen then no one will be caught out and potentially ruin the take. After all, it won’t look good if you go in for a kiss and the actor flinches at the last moment or if someone touches a bare breast and the actor yelps because of cold hands!
As we all know, improvisation occurs to a certain extent in every take but take care if you’re doing an intimate scene. You might suddenly feel that your character would not just kiss their partner’s neck, but also squeeze her breast at the same time but if you haven’t agreed this with your partner beforehand, don’t do it.
Again, treat it as a fight scene: you wouldn’t punch your acting partner with your right hand when you’d rehearsed and prepared with the left. So finish the take as agreed and then suggest the change to your partner (and the director if appropriate) and then try it again.
Because it’s simply not fair to change the plan mid-take!
