The most awkward scene of Henry Fonda’s career: “He was very tense”
Sex scenes in cinema are awkward at the best of times. Even when actors are willing participants, the act itself is an inherently bizarre one—designed for reproduction, yet repurposed for storytelling. It’s a natural part of human life, and, as such, it finds its way into film, depicted through love, frivolity, or trauma. Sometimes, that trauma isn’t just in the narrative but experienced by those performing it.
Sergio Leone, the master of the ‘spaghetti western’, remains one of cinema’s most influential filmmakers. His works, especially those starring Clint Eastwood, are often considered definitive of the genre. But beyond the big names and famous gunfights, the ‘spaghetti western’ industry was vast—over 600 such films were made between 1964 and 1978, often for reasons ranging from artistic passion to simple tax benefits. Leone’s 1966 classic The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is perhaps the most copied film of all time, setting a precedent for everything that followed. Yet, it was his later film, Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), that provided one of his greatest on-set challenges—and it had nothing to do with shootouts.
During the making of Once Upon a Time in the West, Henry Fonda—one of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors—found himself in an unusual predicament. It wasn’t the gruelling hours under the relentless heat or the extensive horseback sequences that unsettled him. It was his first-ever love scene. And it wasn’t just any scene; it was filmed under the watchful gaze of journalists from around the world, Leone himself, and—most notably—Fonda’s wife, who sat just off-camera.
Recalling the moment, Leone later told The Telegraph: “The first scene to be filmed was the love scene with Henry Fonda. We were surrounded by hundreds of journalists from everywhere in the world, and the wife of Henry Fonda was sitting just next to the camera. ‘The first time he’d done a love scene,’ they said. I was nervous, and he was very tense. I mean, to start with a love scene with an actor you don’t know, with all these people around you.” Why Fonda’s wife was there remains unclear, but it’s safe to say it didn’t ease tensions.
The actors themselves described the experience with humour, likening it to a teenager’s first time. “Sergio had just introduced us—we’d shaken hands and said our polite ‘how do you dos’—and here we were on the bed together, making passionate love in front of a camera! In my mind, he was still ‘Mr Fonda.’ I almost giggled out loud at the idea but managed to control my laughter.”
The filming process was no quick affair. “For a time, they were sitting all around us on chairs, like an audience, watching us during the scene,” one actor recounted. “I remember very well Sergio, who was on top of us, filming the close-up of me. It took two days to complete the scene: by that time, I had begun to know Henry Fonda!” Quite intimately, it seems—under the scrutiny of the entire production crew and, of course, Fonda’s ever-present wife.
Despite the discomfort, the film remains a masterpiece. Once Upon a Time in the West is widely considered one of the greatest Westerns ever made, a defining work of Leone’s career. Its influence endures, setting the template for every director who insists their leading man don a Stetson. But for all its grand cinematography and legendary performances, one of its most memorable off-screen moments remains a scene where two seasoned professionals had to pretend to be intimate—awkwardly, and for the first time. Because, as with real life, sometimes first times are just that uncomfortable.
