What Keira Knightley’s Favorite Sex Scene Tells us about Sex Scenes
Positive testimonies of onscreen sexuality, part 1
Over the years, I have showcased numerous actor testimonies on how filming hypersexualized scenes has proven detrimental to them—emotionally and/or morally.1 These stories may not represent all actors’ experiences, but comprise a significant portion of them. Still, there are positive testimonies out there, and it’s worth considering them as well.
Case in point: Keira Knightley. At the age of 17, she gained international fame for her role as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Since then, she’s become quite familiar with nudity and sex scenes. In her mid-thirties, she stated the following:
I am in a position where I can be quite dictatorial about what I am comfortable with and what I am not. I am in a position where I can say yes and no. I have a contract that is very clear about what I am prepared to do and with sex scenes in particular I have approval over the final edit.
Historically, this has not been your average actor’s experience—especially, she notes, “younger actresses…who do not have that clout and don’t have the ability to say no.”
Knightley continued:
I have had the power to be [dictatorial] for quite some time because I was successful as a young actor. So I have always had nudity clauses and I have always been able to say what exactly I was comfortable with and what I wasn’t. But that was because I had hit movies by the time I was 18. So I have been in a unique position and I have never had a bad experience with any of that. I have always felt utterly protected in all of the scenes I have done. But I understand that’s a very lucky position to be in.
As such, her perspective on nudity and sex scenes is more positive than most. So, when fleshed out, what does such a perspective actually look and sound like? Well, looking at the topic through a wide-angle lens, Knightley has this to say:
In general with sex scenes, and the way I demand the way they are done now, is they need to be absolutely specific. You almost have to do them like a dance sequence. ‘This is exactly what we want from this shot. This [is] exactly where you are kissing. This is exactly what’s going on,’ because that’s the way everyone has control over it and everyone can feel comfortable.
The “Best” Experience
Zeroing in on more specifics, Knightley has shared her favorite sex scene:
“The best sex scene I’ve done onscreen is the one in ‘Atonement.’” . . . . [Director Joe Wright] choreographed the scene within an inch of its life. It was absolutely, ‘Foot goes up there, hand goes up there. So both me and James [McAvoy] felt utterly comfortable and not exposed, and like we could deal with it. It’s never gonna be fun, but we could deal with it.”
Now, I’d like to pause for a moment and ask you to consider something. If asked to share your favorite ice cream, you probably wouldn’t say something like, “Pistachio’s never fun, but I can deal with it.” Or, if asked what your favorite movie is, you wouldn’t choose a film you were merely able to tolerate all the way to the end. Or, if asked about your favorite workplace experience, you likely wouldn’t say, “That one assignment that really wasn’t enjoyable, but which I managed to finally get through.”
And the reason why you wouldn’t answer that way to any of those questions is that you would be talking about your favorite experience—not something that barely passed the minimum requirements of acceptability.
And yet that is exactly how Knightley described her “favorite” sex scene: “It’s never gonna be fun, but we could deal with it.” That’s her highest opinion of filming a sex scene: the best case scenario is if you can just accept that it will be an unpleasant experience.
Such is the perspective of a “successful” person in a “very lucky” and “utterly protected” position. Imagine what it’s like for the vast majority of actors—those who are not as successful, lucky, or protected.
Maturity Breeds Distaste
As a married woman and mother in her thirties, even someone of Knightley’s status has grown in her dislike of onscreen sexuality. A few years ago, Vanity Fair noted how the actress is “no longer interested in acting in nude scenes or sex scenes helmed by male directors”:
“If [the nudity] was about motherhood. . . I’d totally be up for exploring that with a woman [director] who would understand that,” Knightley added. She noted that she’s become “very uncomfortable” doing scenes that amplify the male gaze. Many sex scenes, she said, just boil down to a director needing “somebody to look hot.”
“You can use somebody else, because I’m too vain and [my] body has had two children now,” Knightley said. “And I’d just rather not stand in front of a group of men naked.”
After a couple successful decades in the industry, Knightley’s sentiment regarding sex scenes is “I’d just rather not.”
Would that more actors had such liberties.
Next entry: “Margot Robbie and the Slippery Slope of Moral Compromise”
Examples include Maria Schneider, Evangeline Lilly, Jennifer Lawrence, Salma Hayek, and Sienna Miller (among others).