The 2011 scene that made Woody Harrelson “as nervous as I’ve ever been” and how tequila saved the day
There’s one kind of scene that always sticks out when you’re watching a movie, leaving you to wonder more than any other type what it must’ve been like to film it. Of course, I’m talking about sex scenes.
Sure, actors are just doing their jobs, but it must be intimidating having to film a sex scene – no matter how tame or graphic – with a colleague. Is it better if you’re friends? How about if you actively don’t like your co-star that you’re suddenly forced to kiss and writhe around naked with? Even worse, as is the case for some actors in long-running TV shows, what if the person you have to get down and dirty with is a past fling from your own life?
There are so many awkward situations you can imagine arising when actors are filming an intimate scene, no matter how willing each of them is to get their kit off in front of the camera – what if an actor actually gets aroused… What if they don’t – shouldn’t you be a little offended, and it must feel strange kissing someone and touching their body when they’ve got a partner at home, and vice versa. Signing up to do a sex scene is clearly not for the weak.
Woody Harrelson learned this when he was thrust (pun intended) in front of the camera and instructed to do a sex scene with Robin Wright, whose real-life ex-partner is Harrelson’s friend Sean Penn. That surely complicates things.
Naturally, Harrelson was nervous, even though he’d done his fair share of sex scenes in the past – this wasn’t the first time he’d had to do a sex scene with a friend’s partner, either, once revealing how this affected his approach to intimate scenes with Demi Moore in Indecent Proposal.
“I’m close friends with Demi and with Demi’s husband. You have to draw the line at how far to go, and I’m not good at drawing lines,” he said, adding, “The scene was flesh and flesh coming together. I don’t know if Demi was turned on, but me… But you have to think of what the repercussions will be. I don’t want Bruce [Willis] coming after me.”
Years on from this, you’d think that Harrelson would be past getting nervous about sex scenes, but when it came to filming one for Rampart with Wright, the actor told Extra that he was “about as nervous as I’ve ever been.”
Despite the fact that he isn’t the kind of guy who likes to drink, having followed a raw vegan diet for quite some time now, Harrelson knew that there was only one way to get through this anxiety-inducing situation – tequila. And who can blame him?
“I needed a drink, she had some tequila, and said, ‘Let’s do it,’” he explained. “These artificial inducements to relaxation, of course, I am 100% against them, but in this particular case, I thought it was worthwhile.”
Many actors have admitted to getting drunk to film a risque sequence, like Margot Robbie in The Wolf of Wall Street, who admitted to doing shots before her nude scenes, as did Neve Campbell, Matt Dillon, and Denise Richards, so that they could film their threesome scene in Wild Things. It seems like that’s sometimes the only way to get over the nerves, even if you’re usually sober, like Harrelson.
