Florence Pugh’s sex scene confessions – ‘raw and exhausted’ and ’scared of nipples’

Florence Pugh isn’t afraid to bare all on camera if it means achieving the perfect sex scene.

But time and again, the Midsommar actress has been hit with ‘nudity bans’ and censorship – with some countries even adding clothes over her nude form using CGI. She’s faced cruel body shaming while stripping off for 2023 hit Oppenheimer, with some critics even claiming she has “too much belly fat” to be stripping off.

Thankfully Florence’s supporters had her back, as one fumed at the time: “Honestly y’all… I’m so tired of being a human.” While someone else said: “Why are we still talking about women’s bodies? Let women live, Jesus.”

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Florence isn’t letting it get to her, however, and didn’t hesitate to get down and dirty for the “vital” love scenes in the film. It wasn’t her first time doing so, either, because she was left “raw and exhausted” by certain Midsommar scenes, and even stripped off with Harry Styles for Don’t Worry Darling.

Daily Star takes a look at the actress’ sex scene confessions over the years.

Awkward CGI

Despite Cillian Murphy’s claims that the romping in Oppenheimer was “vital” to the plot, cinemas around the world were forced to censor Pugh’s naked body to get around modesty laws. In the Middle East and India, Pugh instead donned a black CGI dress in the middle of a passionate love scene.

In the Middle East, nudity is completely banned in films, while India wanted the film to meet the requirements for a UA rating, meaning it is acceptable for children under the age of 12 with parental guidance. If censoring hadn’t been used, the romping scenes would have to have been cut entirely.

But the scenes caused quite a stir in the Western world too, with one woman going viral for covering her husband’s eyes as Florence strips off and straddles her co-star. Jourdan Kehr, from West Virginia, confessed her hubby closed his eyes and rested his head on her shoulder instead.

She claims she suffered “betrayal trauma” after discovering he watched porn without her, and said she needed to “prepare” for him to see the sex scene. In a video, she said: “Okay so I research everything before we watch it but especially this movie. Obviously I heard about it, yes we wanted to see it, it has an amazing rating.

“We prepared ourselves. I didn’t know when the scene was going to happen and I also didn’t understand how the scene was happening. I thought it was just several minutes straight of… sex. But it wasn’t, it was actually broken up into like it would be a flash of that and then it would be a flash of normal life and then it would be a flash of the scene.

“We talk about things, like ‘What if you get triggered? What if I’d get triggered?’ So essentially what we did was when the scene came up, when things were happening, he literally closed his eyes and laid his head on my shoulder.

She added: “Then I would just let him know whenever it was over. And it literally took nothing away from the story. Him not looking at the screen during [the sex scene] did not change the storyline, did not change anything. Have a plan and talk about it before you go.”

‘Scared of bums and nipples’

Back in 2018, Florence starred in BBC drama The Little Drummer Girl – but said there was a strict nudity ban in the programme. Unlike the channel’s other racy shows at the time, including The Night Manager, the cast weren’t allowed to strip off.

Florence told Radio Times: “America is quite scared of bums and nipples. We had to make sure there were no bums and nipples out. I don’t know why. Such strange people.

“There was one scene we did where Alex [Skarsgård] and I were under the duvet and supposedly naked. I was wriggling down one end and Alex is wriggling down the other. Halfway through, I hear, ‘Cut! Cut!’ Director Park says, ‘Florence, you’ve got to hide your nipples more!’ I’m like, ‘Okay!’”

The story didn’t end there, as Florence begged to get her boobs out. She added: “So we do it again, and again I hear: ‘CUT! CUT! Florence! It looks like you’re hiding your nipples.’ I’m like: ‘Arrrgh! Just let me get my breasts out, I don’t care!’ But America does care.”

Florence has no problem with nudity because her parents were “very cool” and made sure she saw plenty of European films growing up – explaining: “There’s a reason why there’s a problem with bodies and it’s because you never actually get to see any normal versions of them.”

‘Raw and exhausted’

Filming Midsommar was “exhausting” for plenty of actors – and the film’s full-frontal nudity was only partly to blame. While Florence doesn’t romp in the movie, her co-star Jack Reynor runs out fully naked, something he begged director Ari Aster for.

He told Polygon: “What was important to me in playing this role in the film was that it’s a 40-minute long, very humiliating death that [Christian] suffers. […] Even things like the scene where I come running out of the house and it’s full frontal nudity, I suggested that to Ari the day before we shot it.

“I was like, ‘Dude, this needs to be full-frontal. I need to come running out of there, and you need to see everything because the character needs to be as vulnerable and as humiliated as possible.’”

Meanwhile, Florence’s character Dani has a full on breakdown during a wild sex scene as Christian is surrounded by naked women. As Florence faked crying for minutes, she admitted she was left “raw” after the experience.

Opening up on Instagram, the actress said: “We all looked at each other before we started rolling and knew it would be hard. And awkward. And strange. And unnatural. We knew it wouldn’t be pleasurable.

“But by the end we were all in each other’s laps and crying and allowing our bodies to keep heaving. I knew I would never be so open and so raw and so exhausted like I was that day ever again, I can hope at least…

“Scenes that make you hurt, or cringe, or turn away from the screen when watching, are scenes that were designed to make you, for ten seconds at least, the most human. But for us, it was hours. Beautiful, hard, proud hours.”

Difficult shoot

Back in 2017, Florence was making waves with her period drama Lady Macbeth – but confessed that her sex scenes were “difficult to shoot”. She told the Evening Standard: “Reading any script, if any nudity comes up you can pretty much gauge it pretty quickly. If it feels necessary then you read it and go ‘Oh well that’s quite lovely.’”

She went on: “I don’t like prancing around naked every two seconds. You just have to realise that what you’re doing, if you do it right, will be beautiful and if you don’t then fingers crossed. But it was and I really appreciate all those scenes now watching them back.”

But the scenes were “so natural” and it made sense for the pair to “be in bed every two seconds”, she admitted. Florence said: “That’s what [her character Katherine] has been dying to do since she got married so it never really felt like it just came in at the end – it was very natural.”

‘No-one likes doing them’

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Opening up about filming sex scenes with Florence, her Oppenheimer co-star Cillian Murphy confessed the whole experience was “awkward” but “vital. In the film, his titular character carried out an affair with Pugh’s character Jean Tatlock, while still married to Kitty Puening (Emily Blunt).

He explained to British GQ: “I think the relationship that he has with Jean Tatlock is one of the most crucial emotional parts of the film. I think if they’re key to the story then they’re worthwhile.

“Listen, no one likes doing them, they’re the most awkward possible part of our job. But sometimes you have to get on with it.”

Director Christopher Nolan added to Insider: “When you look at Oppenheimer’s life and you look at his story, that aspect of his life, the aspect of his sexuality, his way with women, the charm that he exuded, it’s an essential part of his story.

“It felt very important to understand their relationship and to really see inside it and understand what made it tick without being coy or allusive about it – but to try to be intimate, to try and be in there with him and fully understand the relationship that was so important to him.”

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk