Hollywood loves a good illusion — green screens, stunt doubles, and romantic leads who can barely stand each other off-camera.
But every now and then, a film decides to drop the act entirely and go full method, pushing boundaries in ways that would make even the most seasoned intimacy coordinators blush.
Yes, we're talking about those scenes — the ones where the moaning isn't just acting, and the chemistry is a little too convincing.
Over the course of cinema history, there have been a number of US A-list celebrities who have gone the full distance, unsimulated, warts-and-all, and performed the acts themselves on screen.
Let's get into it.
Aubrey Plaza
Known for her deadpan humor, Aubrey Plaza shocked fans with her explicit scene in The To Do List. On Conan, she explained how things escalated quickly once she read the stage directions.
"In my head, I envisioned a nice scene where you just see my hand slowly go out of frame," she said.
"I thought I was doing one thing and when I showed up it was a whole different thing, it was a full body shot and I asked the director 'what should I do' and she said 'masturbate like it says in the script'".
Willem Dafoe (and Charlotte Gainsbourg - kind of)
In Antichrist, directed by Lars von Trier, the sex was definitely real - but not by the lead actors.
Body doubles stood in for Dafoe and Gainsbourg.
Von Trier said Dafoe was 'too well endowed' and that showing him would confuse audiences.
Dafoe later clarified: "Charlotte and I are both married and I’m not sure everybody would be cool with that."
Chloë Sevigny
In one of the most talked-about scenes of her career, Chloë Sevigny performed unsimulated oral sex on Vincent Gallo in The Brown Bunny.
In a 2010 interview, she opened up about the complicated emotions surrounding the film.
"There are a lot of emotions," she said. "I'll probably have to go to therapy at some point. But I love Vincent. The film is tragic and beautiful, and I'm proud of it and my performance.
"I'm sad that people think one way of the movie, but what can you do?
"I've done many explicit sex scenes, but I'm not that interested in doing any more.
"I'm more self-aware now and wouldn't be able to be as free, so why even do it?"
Here's one more for good measure.
Not the headline cast of Nymphomaniac
This Lars von Trier project had everyone buzzing with its promise of real sex on screen. Shia LaBeouf even said the film had a disclaimer that “basically says we're doing it for real.”
But in the end, body doubles handled the actual sex, with the footage digitally combined in post-production.
Producer Louise Vesth explained: "We shot the actors pretending to have sex and then had the body doubles, who really did have sex, and in post (production) we will digital-impose the two.
"So above the waist it will be the star, and then below the waist it will be the doubles."