Why Filming Sex Scenes Is Easier Than Kissing Scenes, According To Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan as Jo March in Little Women
(Image credit: (Sony))

Can we even start awards season without Saoirse Ronan? The four-time Academy Award-nominated actress has become a mainstay in the Oscar conversation, and this year, the actress will play the love interest to Kate Winslet’s 19th century paleontologist Mary Anning in Ammonite. The film will feature an erotic sex scene Winslet and Ronan choreographed themselves for the drama.

Although she’s 26, Saoirse Ronan is already a veteran of Hollywood since starting her career as a child actor. In her adulthood, the actress has previously checked off the sex scene box with the likes of Timotheé Chalamet in Lady Bird. Ronan recently shared her take on filming sex scenes with these words:

I've been very lucky that I've never felt overly nervous doing sex scenes. To me, they're so completely technical. It's not like a kissing scene, where you're actually kissing someone. It's purely technical and choreographed. I've just always sort of seen it as that, which I think is probably a good way to go about it.

Well this is interesting and brings a new perspective to what it may be like to act in a sex scene versus a makeout moment. As Saoirse Ronan told ET, she finds the former to be easier because it’s more about the choreography involved than locking lips. And when you think about it, a kissing scene is very much more real when you see it onscreen than a sex scene would be, so this actually makes sense.

For Ammonite, Saoirse Ronan was comfortable in the hands of Kate Winslet for the period piece that has received positive reviews overall ahead of its Friday release. CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg gave the film 3.5 stars out of five in his review, particularly citing their chemistry as a highlight of the movie. Ronan said she felt “very relaxed” with Winslet for the movie, and playing off each other’s ideas for their sex scene looks to have benefitted the film. Check out the trailer for Ammonite below:

Saoirse Ronan explained that the co-stars got really open with each other about what they like to experience in the bedroom and adapted their conversations to their characters for Ammonite’s most passionate scenes. The trailer offers a small peak at the actress’ sexual tension and a couple small moments from the aforementioned scenes. Ammonite is named after an extinct sea creature and will follow the pair as they develop an intense relationship together.

Ammonite is heading to theaters on November 13, ahead of its release on-demand on December 4. We’ll keep a lookout and see how the movie captures audiences into award season. Aside from the romantic drama, Winslet will star in the next Avatar film, and Saorise is set to star in Wes Anderson’s next film The French Dispatch, which is expected to come out sometime in 2021. Check out CinemaBlend’s 2021 release calendar for more exciting releases.

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.