Are there really fewer racy scenes on screen? A study shows that the quantity of such scenes in films has decreased significantly since 2000 and the reasons could be numerous.
Western screenwriters, directors and distributors no longer fear the wrath of censors. But, according to The Economist, the subject of sex is being judged again, this time in Hollywood circles. Recently, filmmakers, critics and viewers have begun to debate the lack of sex on screen. Some believe that Hollywood has entered a puritanical era and blame the #MeToo movement and the omnipresence of superhero films aimed at a wide audience including young people, as well as the need to appeal to foreign markets. .
Others disagree, however, and cite examples of very explicit scenes in recent films, such as Fair Play, the sexy thriller starring Phoebe Dynevor (The Bridgertons) and Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story). ), or Poor Creatures, the fantastic romantic drama which earned Emma Stone her last Oscar.
Stephen Follows, a film data analyst, examined the 250 highest-grossing films in the United States each year since 2000. To do this, he took into account data from film classification organizations as well as information from databases. film data, in which a film’s “sex and nudity” is rated on a scale from “none” to “severe”: it found that the level of sexual content in films fell by almost 40% . In other words, abstinence on screen is in fashion. In 2000, less than 20% of the top-grossing films had no sexual content. Today, almost half lack it.
Less sex, but more explicit racy scenes
As The Economist explains, There may be fewer sex scenes on screen, but the ones shown these days are more explicit than ever. In 1992, a quick shot of the genitals of the heroine played by Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct shocked audiences and critics. But in 2023, the full-frontal female nudity seen in films such as Joy Ride, a comedy by Adele Lim, and The Challenge with Jennifer Lawrence, has not caused a furor. Fair Play and Saltburn – the Prime Video film starring Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi which attracted a lot of attention for its racy scenes – both released last year as well, went even further, presenting characters practicing oral sex on their partners with rules included.
Netflix Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor in “Fair Play” (2023)
As for erect male members, once strictly forbidden, they are now filmed using a prosthetic, and have appeared in films such as Todd Haynes’ May December with Natalie Portman. Mary & George, a historical drama series about King James I of England, also strove for a certain crude realism. And let’s not talk about certain teenage dramas such as Euphoria…
The role of intimacy coordinators: divided opinion
Intimacy coordinators play an important role in Hollywood these days. On sets, they liaise with the director and actors to choreograph sex (and sexual violence) scenes. Ita O’Brien is a leading intimacy coordinator who has worked on series like Normal People, which follows a young couple’s complicated relationship from their high school years to college — and who revealed the rising stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal – films such as Magic Mike: Last Dance. She compares her job to that of a stunt coordinator who wants to keep the actors safe while choreographing a fight in the most exciting way possible. Sex can still be explicit, she says, but “it serves the character and the narrative.”
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Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal in “Normal People” (2020)
As a result, these coordinators often ask filmmakers to think about why the scene is important in the story which, according to Ita O’Briensometimes results in changes to the storyline or removal of the sex scene.
Thus, some actors are not at all for their presence on the set, like Jennifer Aniston or Sean Bean, who declared that they were useless or that they stifled the spontaneity of the sex scenes. For some, the fact that they have become almost ubiquitous on film sets suggests that they are a symptom of a more censored era.
Still, other actors praised them, saying their efforts helped them focus on their work. Kristen Stewart, for example, said that choreographing her character’s romantic moments in the romantic thriller Love Lies Bleeding helped her a lot: rather than being “thrown in”, this helps the actors to be “less embarrassed”, she clarified.
An even more modest future?
The fate of the sex scene, on both the small and big screens, would therefore belong to the next generation, and according to The Economist, this less daring period could well last. The publication specifies that Generation Z is notoriously more chaste than its elders. Not only do young people have fewer relationships, but they would also like to see fewer of them on screen, according to a survey conducted last year by the Center for Scholars and Storytellers at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Indeed, when asked to rank 19 topics they liked to watch in series and films, young people ranked “love and/or sex” in 13th place and “content that does not does not include sex or romance” in seventh position… The future, it seems, could be wiser and wiser…
