Hollywood icon Michael Douglas has reflected on how filming sex scenes in movies has changed, suggesting directors have had control seized away from them by executives and intimacy coordinators.
The 79-year-old star has shot his fair share of raunchy moments onscreen thanks to appearing in the likes of films such as Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction.
And in his opinion, it’s the responsibility of the male actor ‘to make sure the woman is comfortable’.
However, it’s not something Douglas said he ‘worries’ about anymore, as he shared his view on the apparent recent trend of movies having fewer sex scenes.
‘I’m past the age where I’ve got to worry about that! But it’s interesting with all the intimacy coordinators. It feels like executives taking control away from filmmakers,’ he observed.
However, he went on to acknowledge in his interview with Radio Times that ‘there have been some terrible faux pas and harassment’.
The practice of using intimacy coordinators became a common occurrence on sets in the wake of the Me Too movement, triggered by producer Harvey Weinstein’s downfall.
Douglas continued: ‘Sex scenes are like fight scenes, it’s all choreographed. In my experience you take responsibility as the man to make sure the woman is comfortable, you talk it through. You say, “OK, I’m gonna touch you here if that’s alright”.’
‘It’s very slow but looks like it’s happening organically, which is hopefully what good acting looks like,’ the Hollywood stalwart, who is son to the late Kirk Douglas, added.
The Wall Street star, who previously said it was a ‘pleasure’ to finally leave behind R-rated films when he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has spoken about intimacy coordinators before.
‘I’m sure there were people that overstepped their boundaries, but before, we seemed to take care of that ourselves. They would get a reputation and that would take care of them,’ he said to The Telegraph.
‘But I talked to the ladies, [because] I did a few of those sex movies — sexual movies — and we joke about it now, what it would have been like to have an intimacy coordinator working with us…’
His Basic Instinct co-star Sharon Stone revealed last year that she was paid $13,500,000 less than Douglas for her work on the erotic thriller.
Paul Verhoeven’s film went on to make nearly $353m (£185m) at the box office, largely thanks to audiences wanting to see her notorious leg-crossing scene.
Stone landed a $500,000 a pay cheque for playing kinky killer author Catherine Trammel in the noir flick, she explained at the New York Women In Film and Television’s 43rd annual Muse Awards lunch
The star admitted: ‘Michael Douglas made $14m. Now, I was new. I was new and he was a very big star.’
She revealed her pay for the film to a crowd of mainly female film and TV executives and added she faced disrespect from a line producer on the film – who kept referring to her as Karen for the ‘entirety’ of the project.
Stone recalled: ‘Even at the Governor’s Ball (after the Oscars), he still called me Karen!
‘And, I carried that humiliation really deeply within me – even though my name wasn’t on the poster.’
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