A love-making scene is one of the most pivotal parts in any movie. While we can all agree a thrilling plot and excellent character development are crucial to any blockbuster becoming a success – it’s definitely helped along by a good romantic side plot. If you’ve ever unexpectedly had to endure the embarrassment of watching an ‘intimate’ scene with a parent, then you may have an idea of how awkward actually filming the scene may be.

Actors and actresses do a spectacular job of feigning chemistry to set the screen on fire with passionate encounters – but a lot of the time it is just that – acting. When two co-stars don’t get on or aren’t fully comfortable doing these scenes, disaster can strike. Equally, when two co-stars really get on…it can get a little rowdier than is strictly professional. If you’ve ever wondered what it must be like to act in a romantic movie, being stripped completely bare in front on an entire crew and simulating the most sacred of acts, then you may want to stick around.

We’re going to give you a no-holds-barred account of some of the most awkward and disastrous sex scenes ever filmed, right from the horse’s mouth. Hold on to your hats, it’s about to get a little steamy. Let’s take a look at 15 Love-Making Scenes That Went Horribly Wrong.

15. RYAN REYNOLDS AND OLIVIA WILDE – THE CHANGE UP

Ryan Reynolds, husband to the phenomenal Blake Lively and all-round good guy, isn’t a stranger to awkward moments in the bedroom. While filming the 2011 movie The Change Up, he had a strange encounter with co-star Olivia Wilde. He told Jay Leno on The Tonight Show, ‘In the scene, she’s sitting there and I take her top off and the bra off, and she has those pasties on, but she’s drawn these adorable little smiley faces on them. And I forget every line in the scene – not just from this movie but from every other movie I’ve done. The actor explained, ‘At some point in the scene she takes my hands and puts them on her breasts. I take my hands away and I look down at my hands and there’s two frickin’ smiley faces on them and I have no idea what to do. And I reflexively, like an idiot, just put my hands right back on her breasts!”

14. HENRY CAVILL – THE TUDORS

Being a male actor filming an intimate scene certainly has its difficulties. Superman star Henry Cavill had a ‘hard’ time while filming for the racy period drama, The Tudors. ‘A girl had to be on top of me, she had spectacular breasts, and I hadn’t rearranged my – stuff into a harmless position. She’s basically rubbing herself all over me and, um, it got a bit hard,’ Cavill revealed during an interview with popular magazine Men’s Health. ‘I had to apologize profusely afterward. It’s not great when you’re in a professional acting environment and somebody gets a boner, is it? No, not acceptable.’ Hands up if you think that’s the worst thing that could possibly happen in that situation? Well, read on…

13. CHRISTOPHER MINTZ-PLASSE – SUPERBAD

Lovable Christopher Mintz-Plasse was still a wee teenager when he shot the classic movie, Superbad. Because Mintz-Plasse was underage, he had to be accompanied by a legal guardian at all times. His mother drew the short straw was required to be around during all of the scenes that her son shot…including the sex scene. Is there anything more off-putting than that? ‘It was because I was 17,’ he told GQ. ‘Stupid law. I was just sitting there with my bors on, waiting for my mom to drive down to the set. She got there, and I had fake sexual intercourse in front of her.’ We told you it got worse. If you think that’s the ‘end’ of it, you’re sorely mistaken. There really is no end to how terrible a sex scene can be…

12. EMILIA CLARKE – GAME OF THRONES

Sorry to break it to you, but we’re not here to talk about THAT scene in the season 7 finale, no matter how much we all want to relive/cringe at it. Cast your mind back to when The Breaker of Chains was just a regular Khaleesi of the Dothraki, married to Karl Drogo. During one of their intense intimate scenes, Clarke just couldn’t contain her laughter. The pair had great chemistry (sadly just as friends) and actor Jason Moma decided to pull a prank on his co-star. Instead of using a skin colored run-of-the-mill modesty sock for his parts, he opted for a pink fluffy one, making the scene extremely difficult for Clarke to film as she couldn’t contain her laughter. ‘It’s huge, and it’s pink, and I don’t know what to do,’ Clarke said on The Graham Norton Show.

11. ANNE HATHAWAY – LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS

Anne Hathaway is one of the less raucous members of Hollywood’s elite, known best for her roles in films like The Devil Wears Prada, or The Princess Diaries. While filming for the erotic romance film Love and Other Drugs in 2010, it wasn’t co-star Jake Gyllenhaal that made the entire thing unbearable, but an innocent mistake that will go down in history as one of her worst moments. ‘I have to remove my trench coat and be nude underneath,’ Hathaway explained to Hollywood Life. ‘And I thought we were filming, but it turned out we were just rehearsing and I got unnecessarily naked in front of a lot of people!’ That’s not the worst situation we’ve seen, but it’s definitely not the best! 

10. KATE WINSLET – EVERY MOVIE, EVER

Talking candidly in an interview with V Magazine, Kate Winslet spoke of how uncomfortable filming sex scenes makes her as a woman and actress. You may be surprised given how her many infamous scenes come across on screen, but she protested –  ‘I hate it! Listen make no mistake, I just get on it. As actors you talk about it all the time. You can literally be tangled in sheets, and you turn to the other actor and say ‘What the f*ck are we doing?’ Dear Mum, at work today I had so-and-so’s left nut sack pressed against my cheek. It’s sort of unethical if you think about it in those terms.’ The real question here is…who’s nut sack was pressed against Winslet’s cheek?! 

9. LIZZY CAPLAN – TRUE BLOOD

HBO series True Blood captivated audiences with racy love making scenes mixed with sexy vampires and creatures of the night. When Masters of Sex star Lizzy Caplan signed on, she knew exactly what she was up for as Jason’s love interest, Amy – but it didn’t make it any easier. Like a lot of actors, Caplan turned to alcohol to settle her nerves. ‘It was like 7 am in the morning and I was chugging vodka completely naked while a make-up artist I had just met was on her knees in front of me sponging my ass,’ Caplan said on Chelsea Lately. It wasn’t the scene itself that caused the issues, but her behavior after. ‘I was so drunk, that after I shot the scene I was going up to the crew members. I had just met all these people the day before and I was going up to them like, ”You got a boner! You do! You’ve got one!”‘

8. ANNA PAQUIN AND STEPHEN MOYER – TRUE BLOOD

Carrying on in the same ‘vein’ (see what we did there) Anna Paquin was used to flashing the flesh on HBO’s True Blood, too. While the scenes were often extremely erotic and intense, the most awkward time was when her real-life husband Stephen Moyer (who also played Paquin’s on-screen love, Bill) directed and episode which involved his wife simulating sex with another actor. Moyer explained, ‘There are moments where I’ll be watching on a monitor [and say], “Oh, Joe, just move your hand up towards Anna’s breast. Good. And can you move your right thumb just a little bit …? Great. And then I’ll go, “Babe, babe, enjoy it.” I’m certainly talking to her as “babe.” “Darling, go for it.'” Fangtastic. 

7. MARGOT ROBBIE AND LEONARDO DICAPRIO – WOLF OF WALL STREET

There are fewer leading men that are as sought after as star of everything, Leonardo DiCaprio. Not only is he heart-breakingly handsome, but he’s used to owning it on screen. It took Margot Robbie to put him in his place during filming of Wolf of Wall Street. During an interview, Robbie told Manhattan Magazine, ‘We were positioned while they lit around us in one scene, and I kind of pushed Leo’s head to one side and told him he was in my light and he moved out of [it],’ she said. ‘He was so incredulous that I had told him to get out of my light, and physically moved him out of the way, he was like, “Did you really just do that?” I don’t think anyone has told him to get out of their light in quite some time. He seemed extremely [shocked], but it was kind of funny.’ Go Margot!

6. MARGOT ROBBIE AND ALEXANDER SKARSGARD – TARZAN

Tarzan is King of the Jungle, swinging through the trees and running through the undergrowth as fast as the gorillas do. During the filming of the 2016 movie, Alexander Skarsgard fared pretty well, given the extreme physical nature of the role…that is, until he went one on with co-star Margot Robbie, who played Jane. The director David Yates had this to say – ‘They’re doing this love scene together, and I said [to Robbie], “Just slap Alex while you’re making love, just kind of give him a punch.” He continued, ‘it was sort of an earthy, sensual moment of her enjoying sex with Alex, and the only bruise he picked up during the entire shoot was probably that punch from Margot. Which says a lot about her feistiness.’ It looks like Robbie has quite a reputation!

5. ROBERT PATTINSON AND JULIANNE MOORE – MAP TO THE STARS

Robert Pattinson may be largely famous for his role as porcelain vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies, but despite playing intensely passionate parts in the past, he wasn’t prepared for his intimate scene with Julianne Moore in Map to the Stars. ‘It was so hot in Toronto [where the movie was shot], and she’s one of these people… she doesn’t sweat at all,” Pattinson told Heat magazine. “But I sweat like a f*****g crazy person. And I was trying to literally catch drops of sweat to stop them hitting her back! Afterwards she was like ‘Are you having a panic attack?’ It was so embarrassing.’

4. KIERA KNIGHTLEY AND MICHAEL FASSBENDER – A DANGEROUS METHOD

For the 2011 A Dangerous Method, Kiera Knightley made sure that there was ample measures in place in case co-star Michael Fassbender did anything inappropriate. Knightley told The Hollywood Reporter, ‘I did actually say to Michael before one of the scenes – I was like, “I’ve got a security guard outside. You touch me and he’s gonna break your legs!” And he was like, ‘Kiera, you’re tied to a bed. You’re not really in a position to say that.’ I said, ‘I guess you’re right.’… [I did] a couple of shots of vodka – definitely – beforehand, and then a couple of glasses of champagne as a celebration of never having to do that again!”

3. ALISON JANNEY – LIFE DURING WARTIME

Allison Janney is best known for her television work on The West Wing and Masters of Sex, and much more. Having scooped a multitude of Emmy’s, she’s managed to evade intimate scenes. However, it wasn’t always the case. Her first sex scene was a disaster. ‘He had to push me up against a wall, and they wanted us to look sweaty for the shot. So they sprayed this glistening stuff all over us. They didn’t realize that we’re on a marble floor,’ Janney told Entertainment Weekly. ‘So he pushes me up against the wall and all of a sudden we drop out of frame because he slips and he drags me down with him. He falls on his knees and I can’t stop laughing. And the cameraman couldn’t stop either. But he really hurt his knees. He had to go to the hospital. So that was my first sex scene.’

2. ASHTON KUTCHER AND NATALIE PORTMAN – NO STRINGS ATTACHED

As we’ve previously seen, it’s not always easy for a male filming these scenes (or a female for that matter). A lot of things come into play, including ego. While Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman were filming No Strings Attached, the sex scenes between the two didn’t run entirely smoothly. They’d fill the silences between takes by talking about everyday trivialites, but it was Kutcher who had to take some hard advice when director Ivan Reitman told him he was taking too long to… get there. ‘Ivan comes back in and is like, “I think you need to orgasm sooner,'” Kutcher said in an interview with ComingSoon.net. ‘Your male machismo is like, no, no, it would take me much longer than this!’

1. JUDD APATOW – THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN

The 40-Year-Old Virgin was directed by none other than powerhouse producer Judd Apatow had to manufacture a woman’s nipple popping out at an exact moment. Ever the inventive mind, he tied a fine string on her nipple and had a lucky assistant pull it at the right time. Apatow was a gentleman about the whole situation, detailing it as one of the most awkward and embarrassing things he has ever had to do in the name of film. ‘I was so uncomfortable shooting it that I only did one take,’ Apatow told MTV. Amusingly, he first asked Seth Rogan to be in charge of the string pulling, but Rogan unsurprisingly turned that honor down.

Sources: ranker.com