While it certainly might not be for everyone, X-rated films with unsimulated sex are a preferred art form for some.
And that includes Gaspar Noé, the controversial Argentinian-born, French-speaking filmmaker known for graphic sex and violence.
In 2015, he debuted a movie at the Cannes Film Festival and it was so intense that it ended up being banned in some places, with its age rating challenged.
While the unsimulated sex scenes may have been shocking enough, Noé ended up filming it in 3D, making the whole thing even more garish.
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And lead actor Karl Glusman thought about quitting over the erotic film's explicit scenes, with his first day of shooting being the notorious ejaculation moment.
Check out the trailer for the movie, called Love, below:
Playing American aspiring filmmaker Murphy who welcomes a third into his relationship before finding out his girlfriend has cheated on him, he explained the director is a fan of ‘surprises’.
Starting filming, Noé apparently took the camera to Glusman’s waist and instructed him to take his pants off.
“That was my ice breaker,” the actor told Variety.
With a lot of the film improvised and the stars not quite knowing what to expect, Glusman was asked if he ever considered quitting Love.
“I went to the bathroom to garner some courage. I looked in the mirror. It felt like the scene in Boogie Nights where he’s pumping himself up,” he recalled.
“I was like, ‘What are you doing?! This is not you. You can’t do this. You should run away.’ I definitely had a moment when my heart sped up, and I thought, ‘This is a huge f**kng mistake.’”
However, Glusman thought about the rest of the crew, not wanting ‘to let them down’.
“I think many young actors want to be daring,” he added. They want to surprise their fellow actors as well as their audiences.
“I just thought, ‘If I don’t do this, someone else will, and I will regret it forever. I will be so jealous once the movie comes out that I didn’t have the balls to step up to the plate.’”
Noé - who also directed Irreversible (2002), Enter the Void (2009) and Climax (2018) - was also previously asked about his decision to film the intimate scenes for real.
“In what you call ‘adult movies’ there are no feelings at all. You never see people kissing or talking about pregnancy,” he told the Irish Examiner.
“You never see any girl having her periods and you never see a girl with regular pubic hair. It’s like a separate world that has nothing to do with normal life.
“What I wanted to do is represent in cinema something that’s important for me that for commercial reasons isn’t represented properly.
"The system of cinema rating is totally old- fashioned.”
Love is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video in the UK, on Sky Store and Rakuten TV.
Other movies where actors have actual unsimulated sex in them
While some films carefully craft scenes just for the camera, others go all the way and feature unsimulated sex scenes.
Antichrist (2009)
Starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, Antichrist follows a couple who carry out acts of sexual behaviour and sadomasochism when they initially sought safety in a cabin.
With the main theme of religion as its backdrop, the actors are replaced with body doubles and have intercourse by a dead tree, where bodies are kept in the exposed roots - making for a very uneasy watch.
The Brown Bunny (2003)
Vincent Gallo wrote, directed and starred in his 2003 movie The Brown Bunny alongside Chloë Sevigny.
A scene that drew significant controversy at the time shows Sevigny’s character performing unsimulated oral sex on Gallo, something she later dubbed 'very complicated'.
She told Playboy in 2001 that the scene elicited 'a lot of emotions', adding: "I'll probably have to go to therapy at some point."
But Sevigny went on to admit: "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?"
9 Songs (2004)
The flick sees Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley take part in a number of sex scenes - something the latter has spoken out about.
Addressing the heavy backlash the 9 Songs received, Stilley told LADbible: "It's a shame that it's been torn apart into these little pieces and bastardised online, to be honest."
Intimacy (2001)
In the 2001 release Intimacy, actors Mark Rylance and Kerry Fox engage in an unsimulated oral sex scene.
Reflecting on the movie, Rylance said it was the 'most difficult job' he's taken on in his career.
He explained: "I was convinced it was a vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London.
"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."
Meanwhile, Fox claimed it was 'not one of her regrets'.
Topics: Cannes Film Festival, TV and Film, Sex and Relationships
Jess Battison