Unsimulated sex scene had major impact on actor's real life relationship

The real-life partner of an actor who starred in a film featuring an unsimulated sex scene revealed the impact it had on their relationship.

When it comes to steamy scenes in film and TV, they may appear to be toe-curlingly real to anyone viewing at home, but for the actors performing them, it's a carefully choreographed sequence featuring clever camera angles and intimacy co-ordinators.

Well, nearly all of the time, as there are a few notable exceptions which involved the actors actually getting it on for real.

Which certainly takes method acting to a whole new level.

From Robert Pattinson in Little Ashes to the controversial 2004 flick 9 Songs, there are a lot more films with unsimulated sex than you realise – and several feature household names.

But what is it like for the stars of such films, as well as their loved ones, to know their intimate moments are forever immortalised?

Released in 2001, Patrice Chéreau's erotic drama Intimacy featured its costars Kerry Fox and Mark Rylance entangled in numerous steamy scenes as their characters Claire and Jay.

This includes a scene where Fox was directed to perform unsimilated oral sex on Rylance for the film – a move which, despite being just seconds long, had an impact on both actors' real-life relationships.

The decision to include such a raw moment would lead Fox's then boyfriend Alexander Linklater to write a piece about the film for The Guardian at the time.

Kerry Fox would come home 'exhausted and almost ill'

Linklater revealed that he and Fox had initially wondered how viewers would be duped into believing the sex was real in the film and were surprised to learn from Chéreau that parts of it would be very real.

The revelation tested the couple's relationship, especially since they had only known each other for six months when she agreed to do it.

Linklater wrote: "Forget Kerry - this wasn't going to be easy for me. I was in the flush of the most important relationship of my life and had no doubt that I was also, in the immortal words of John Lennon, a jealous guy.

"If the film went ahead, I would have to wait while she left for rehearsals to practise sex with Mark, and came back home.

"Then, I would have to wait as she went on set, undressed with Mark, took him in her arms, helped him reach a state of arousal, and came back home again."

The film featured a brief moment of unsimulated oral sex (StudioCanal)

He also detailed how Kerry began to show signs of physical exhaustion while shooting Intimacy, writing about how she'd come home with 'carpet burns' and looking 'exhausted and almost ill' during filming.

However, he said: "Once I had seen the film... the jealous urge to find out how far Kerry and I could trust each other disappeared."

What have Kerry Fox and Mark Rylance since said about shooting Intimacy?

24 years on from Intimacy's release and Fox is now married to Linklater, with the couple sharing two children together. She previously addressed the x-rated scene in 2012, telling Metro it was 'one of the best pieces of work I've ever done'.

"I have no regrets," she said.

Meanwhile Rylance looks back on the film with a much more critical view, saying it was the 'most difficult job he'd ever had'.

Kerry Fox has since revealed she doesn't regret the film (Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

"I was convinced it was a vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London," he told The Guardian in 2016.

"Hanif Kureishi's writing couldn't have been more intimate and revealing, but I found the making of the film and the subsequent publicity and personal attacks very, very painful. I wish I hadn't made it."