The overwhelming majority of Hollywood movies will feature steamy scenes which are well choreographed and utilise a combination of clever camera angles and good acting to appear real.
After all, it would be very unreasonable to expect actors to get it on with each other whenever an X-rated moment appears in the script.
However, this doesn’t mean the real deal doesn’t end up on our screens once in a blue moon – with numerous high profile films depicting actual sex over the years. Notable entries include Chloë Sevigny’s Brown Bunny, Nymphomaniac and 9 Songs.
Watching actors get it on for real sound like something which would float your boat? Good news, as we’ve scoured the internet and found to find a round-up of films which feature unsimulated sex.
Caligula (1979)
Caligula (Analysis Film Releasing Corporation)
Kicking the list off is 1979’s Caligula, which features Helen Mirren alongside the likes of Malcolm McDowell, Teresa Ann Savoy, Peter O’Toole and more. The film featured so much content which was reportedly so explicit that it had to cut several moments featuring particularly graphic sex and violence.
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Pink Flamingos (New Line Cinema)
John Waters’ 70s flick stars a woman named Divine who competes with another couple to be the filthiest person alive. Given the nature of the film it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there is an unsimulated sex scene included, with viewers treated to a very real oral sex between Divine and a character named Crackers (Danny Mills).
Starlet (2012)
Starlet (Music Box Films)
Released in 2012, Sean Baker’s Starlet follows the unlikely friendship between 21-year-old Jane and 85-year-old Sadie (played by Dree Hemingway and Besedka Johnson respectively).
Jane’s job as an adult star meant that porn actors were used as body doubles to film unsimulated sex, with Hemingway’s scenes being purely simulated (per Daily Star).
Dogtooth (2009)
Dogtooth (Feelgood Entertainment)
Yorgos Lanthimos’ Greek-language film Dogtooth is a disturbing tale which sees a father keep his three adult children locked away in a compound and in a state of eternal childhood. According to the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification), there is also ‘real’ unsimulated sex in the film.
It is Fine! Everything is Fine (2007)
It is Fine! Everything is Fine(Mubi)
Another horror flick which features unsimulated sex is 2007’s It is Fine! Everything is Fine, with the film featuring various unsimulated sex scenes including, according to IndieWire, actual penetration.
Stranger by the Lake (2013)
Stranger by the Lake (Strand Releasing)
French drama Stranger by the Lake features tells the story of a man named Franck who meets a man named Michel on a nudist beach. Being set on a nudist beach, the film unsurprisingly features a lot of nudity and unsimulated sex scenes – with the actors using body doubles for their genitalia.
Little Ashes (2008)
Little Ashes (Regent Releasing)
Perhaps the most famous film on this list is Little Ashes, which features none other than Robert Pattinson orgasming for real while playing the role of famous painter Salvador Dalí.
“My orgasm face is recorded for eternity,” he famously told Germany’s Interview magazine. “[Faking it] just doesn’t work, so I pleasured myself in front of the camera.”