Andrew Scott reveals the ’embarrassing’ note actors can get from their directors while in the middle of filming sex scenes

Andrew Scott explained what directors sometimes ask actors while they are in the middle of filming a sex scene at an event in London on Friday.

During a cinema screening of his Netflix series Ripley, the 47-year-old actor gave a glimpse into the off-camera cues given when shooting raunchy scenes.

Andrew revealed that he was asked to ‘pick up the pace’ while he was in the middle of the act, and shared his feelings about how ’embarrassing’ he finds filming sex scenes.

‘Pick up the tempo, pick up the tempo,’ that’s literally the kind of notes you get,” he told radio host Edith Bowman at an Everyman Soundtracking event.

The Fleabag star also talked about how actors sometimes have to re-record the audio of scenes months later if a sound has interrupted the original sound – and the added awkwardness when those scenes are racy.

During a cinema screening of his Netflix series Ripley, the 47-year-old actor gave a glimpse into the off-camera cues given when shooting raunchy scenes (pictured in All Of Us Strangers with Paul Mescal)

He said, ‘Then you go in and the first thing you see is a screenshot and you say ‘Urgh’ then they make you re-record something that it’s, you know, if we were to re-record what we had just said , the idiosyncratic way people speak. How do I do that?

“The worst thing you ever have to do is if you’ve done a sex scene, because that’s, you know, embarrassing enough.”

Andrew then said that recreating the necessary sounds for a sex scene can be especially tricky “in your clothes in November, seven months later with twelve people in a booth and someone says, ‘Do you have any snacks?’.”

The Sherlock actor’s most recent sex scenes came in the award-winning All Of Us Strangers, in which he starred opposite Normal People star Paul Mescal.

In January, Andrew admitted he barely rehearsed his raunchy sex scenes with Paul while working with an intimacy coordinator for the role.

The actor was critically acclaimed for his portrayal of a lonely screenwriter who encounters the ghosts of his deceased parents in director Andrew Haigh’s latest film, an adaptation of Japanese author Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel Strangers.

But while an explicit sexual encounter with Harry, played by Irish heartthrob Paul, 28, dominated commentary surrounding the release, Scott insisted at the time that they both took an organic approach to its development.

Speak with AttitudeAndrew has also credited the film’s intimacy coordinator with mediating any concerns about the graphic nature of their sex scene.

Andrew revealed he was asked to ‘pick up the pace’ while in the middle of the act and shared his feelings about how ’embarrassing’ he finds filming sex scenes (pictured in May)

The Fleabag star also talked about how actors sometimes have to re-record the audio of scenes months later if a sound has interrupted the original sound – and the added awkwardness when those scenes were racy (pictured with Phoebe Waller-Bridge in Fleabag)

Andrew said it can be especially tricky to recreate the necessary sounds for a sex scene “in your clothes in November, seven months later with 12 people in a booth and someone says, ‘Do you have any snacks?’ (Pictured in May)

“Sex is just communication, right?” he said. “It’s just physical communication rather than verbal communication… We didn’t rehearse it too long. We knew those scenes, especially the early ones, had to have some kind of excitement.

‘And we had an intimacy coordinator, who can be very useful for the simple reason that if you can talk to someone about your fears or what you want to show, what you don’t want to show, or what you think it should be and what the story of the storyline is, you have that foundation of safety.

‘But chemistry is very interesting. You’re really just listening to see what the other person is doing physically, the same way you would in a dialogue scene.

“And you can talk about that all you want, but until you’re actually there, it’s not living that way, so it’s just about listening, but really just listening with your body.”

Andrew added that he feels that being gay in modern times has been a “beautiful gift” that has helped him form strong friendships.

The Sherlock actor’s most recent sex scenes came in the award-winning All Of Us Strangers, in which he starred opposite Normal People star Paul Mescal (pictured)

He said: ‘I think it’s such a wonderful thing for me. It has been an extraordinary gift to my life and just being able to see the real beauty of being gay is absolutely amazing.

‘The older I get, the more fortunate I am to have been born gay, and that permeates my life in the sense of all my friendships. I have so many amazing queer friends in my life now that I adore.”

He added, “I feel such a huge sense of camaraderie with other queer people right now, and without sounding too hippie about it, I feel like I just want to spread that love and positivity in our community because we have come such a long way. and it’s important that we be kind and take care of each other, and celebrate how uniquely different and how damn amazing that can be.”