Case Studies
Here we present a few stories from actors who have been there and done it… A few little snippets to let you know what others have been through and perhaps help you out when you go through something similar.
In this first piece, an AD (Assistant Director) explains how the shower scene was filmed on a low-budget movie he was part of.
The doors of the shower were removed so the camera could “see into” the shower. There were 3 crew members crammed into the bathroom: the cameraman, the boom guy, and a technician on the floor with a fog machine just out of shot. That was there to add the water steam effect.
The two actors arrived and they were wearing flesh coloured body stockings and I helped them climb over the technician to get into the shower. The makeup girl came over and touched up the makeup on the actress and adjusted her hair, making sure it was wet and matted down on her head and then she sprayed them both so they looked wet.
Outside, watching on a monitor, was the director. He wanted to be inside the bathroom but there wasn’t enough room. He called, “Action!” and the two actors began their scene which involved coming in close for a passionate kiss. Just before their lips touched the director called, “Cut!” because there was too much steam and he couldn’t see anything. The actors climbed out the shower and the technician adjusted the machine and fanned the door to let the excess steam out.
Five minutes later everyone gets back into position (the boom guy was standing on the toilet with the boom over the top of the shower) and we began again. Thirty seconds later the kiss was over everyone got out while the lights were moved slightly for a better angle on the closeup.
The actors returned to the shower, the makeup girl made her adjustments and we carried on. In the end we carried on for almost three hours for that scene, all the time squashed in the bathroom. I was drenched in sweat by the time we finished. It wasn’t in any way sexy or romantic for any of us.
So if you are a little shy about the crew seeing you naked bear in mind they are most likely not thinking about you but about doing their job and how uncomfortable they are! As the AD says, it’s not particularly sexy or romantic. It’s a job.
In this next case study, Jess talks about what happened when she was asked to do more than had been agreed…
I was filming an independent movie in Germany which included a fairly mild sex scene. I knew about it from the script and also spoken to the director about it and was happy with what it involved. When the time came to shoot it however the director started talking about making the scene stronger. He told us that we would be fully naked (instead of topless) and that I would also need to “play with” my co-actor’s penis. I wasn’t happy at all about this and I had a huge argument with the director. (My co-actor refused to back me up, either; he just sat in the corner playing on his phone.)
It ended up that day with me in the bathroom in tears and the director walking off set after shouting at everyone. Fortunately the wardrobe lady was on my side so I didn’t feel totally alone.
I’m pleased now I stood my ground. Because I refused to do the more explicit version we ended up shooting the scene the way it was originally written and although the director didn’t speak to me for 3 days we made up and in fact he cast me in his next feature film.
The point here is that you need to stand your ground and respect your own boundaries if you ever feel that you’ve been pushed into a situation that you would never have agreed to had you known earlier.
Jess did the right thing and the problem came about because the director was not sufficiently prepared or organised.
Next is Richard. We spoke about this earlier in the book and for Richard it’s a matter of accepting it and moving on.
I get hard every time I have a bed scene. It’s just something I do. I figure that if I try and pretend it isn’t there then everyone will know and it’ll be kind of embarrassing for everyone. The first time it happened I checked my junk, told the director I needed five minutes and asked the AD for a cup of coffee while we waited for it to disappear. We had a good laugh then.
Good advice. If the actor had tried to hide it or pretend it wasn’t there (when everyone knew it was) it would have only made the situation worse. As long as everything is out in the open (metaphorically if not literally) then the filming will be far smoother.
Michelle writes:
Early in my career I had to film a scene with a guy I really disliked and who I wasn’t attracted to in the slightest. It’s just one of those things although the finished scene turned out pretty well which kind of pleased me.
How would you have approached having an intimate scene with someone you didn’t like so much? Depending on the character you are playing, one answer could be to imagine that the person opposite you is not unattractive or unpleasant to you but tell yourself they are the most attractive and desirable person in the world. You close your eyes and kiss the man or woman of your dreams in other words.
Which is all well and good, but sometimes accidents do happen as enCAST actor Kristen discovered:
A guy once came on me during a scene. I was so embarrassed not because he’d done that, but because there were loads of crew around who knew. I did kind of like the guy as well but it was very difficult to talk to him afterwards! He was completely distraught of course, poor man.
Again, how would you have dealt with this? If the person is embarrassed then it’s not so easy bring it all out into the open! Think about it for a moment – if you had just shot this scene and this had happened, what would your reaction have been?
Finally, a story from a first timer…
When I was first starting out I had to do a scene in a low budget movie where I was in bed and in walks the second female lead in black basque and stockings who leans over, kisses me, climbs into bed with me and then we get it on, as it were.
Since reading the scene in the script a couple of months before I had been wetting myself and imagining all kinds of outcomes. Most of them centred around me getting a hard-on mid-scene and her leaping out of bed in disgust when she felt it.
Then I met the girl who would play the second female lead and my heart sank. Her name was Louisa [name changed to avoid embarrassment] and she was gorgeous. You see if she’d been unattractive to me then it would have been easy for me; now that she was stunning it was going to make things much harder.
We did a couple of other scenes together and got on like a house on fire. And I fancied her. We did a brief scene which involved a kiss and I began to feel a tingling. Fortunately the director called, “Cut!” so nothing untoward happened but I knew that the following day I was to do the bedroom scene and I was petrified.
That night I spent a good couple of hours preparing myself. I shaved carefully, removed unsightly body hair, plucked the hair from my nose and ears and gave my teeth a good ten minutes of work. And in the hotel bed early the next morning I followed the advice I’d been given by another actor and had not one, but two “private moments” to help reduce any potential problems!
I also put on a pair of tight underpants which I’d be wearing under a pair of shorts for the scene.
The location was a bedroom. I got there first and scoped the place out. It was expensive and nice and just the sort of place my character would get it on with a girl like Louisa which was a shame as if it had been a messy room then it might have helped reduce any possible passion.
Louisa arrived. The director was nowhere in sight so we made some small talk before I decided to plunge in.
‘Er, I’m sorry to ask this but, well, er, when we do our scene, er, um, eh, what, ahem, what will we do? I mean, er, um, ahem, I think I’ll have to touch you but, er, um, ahem, where?’
‘Oh, thank God you asked!’ she cried. ‘I’ve been so nervous about this!’
Which was a great relief. So we sat down and talked. We basically worked out what parts we could touch. For me this meant breasts yes, (but no squeezing as, ‘it makes me giggle’) and outer thigh yes but no inner thigh. For Louisa it meant everywhere except that covered by my shorts. As far as kissing went then this was ok but no tongues, she told me.
Then the crew started to arrive. I got made up and then got undressed and then got into bed. Looking around there were half a dozen grizzled blokes holding lights, leaning against walls, shifting gear, holding booms and so on and this was good as I figured that the sight of sweaty tee-shirts, electrician bum cleavage and the miserable gaffer picking his nose was bound to quash my ardour.
Then the director arrived and – as directors always do – insisted he needed to show me exactly how and where to touch Louisa. He took my place and carefully showed me which breast to cup, which way round to kiss her and where to place my hands. Louisa, poor girl, put up with this without complaining.
But as you might imagine the director didn’t bother with any instruction to Louisa on where and how to touch me!
So, lights on, sound on, camera rolling and action!
I turned over in bed and Louisa was coming towards me, black basque, black stockings, black knickers, sexy beyond my wildest dreams. She leans over the bed and I could smell her skin. Slowly she leaned closer and her lips touched mine. I began to tingle. We kissed and, as planned, I slipped my hands over her breasts.
‘Cut!’” cried the director.
He must have seen my erection through the sheets, I thought.
‘Can we move that light? There’s a shadow on her back,’ he told the AD.
Louisa went back to her starting position and I surreptitiously adjusted myself before we started again. This time we got as far as Louisa rubbing my chest before the continuity girl noticed the picture on the bedside table was facing the wrong way.
I noticed my ardour wasn’t quite as raging by now.
And so it went on. We did half a dozen more takes and had got as far as Louisa climbing onto the bed. The basque was off and her breasts were in my hands (not being squeezed). My passion had got a little bored by now after having been teased for so long and I was enjoying myself. Louisa leaned forward and a breast was in my face. And at that point I glanced up to see the entire male crew staring at me with the pained expressions of utter jealousy on their faces. Even the miserable gaffer was taking notice. There was an almost visible thought balloon hanging above them which read, “You jammy sod!”
So then I really began to enjoy myself!
So it all worked out well. But still there’s professionalism involved: when you come to think about it, only a few people can get passionate and excited with a roomful of people watching them. This is where actors come into their own: good professional actors can block out what is happening and concentrate on the scene and this is what the actor did above.
