Tales of passion might be as old as time, but lately, they’re really having a moment. Already, 2026 has brought us Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling’s exhilarating dom/sub relationship in Harry Lighton’s “Pillion,” and Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie’s literary lust in Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” is right around the corner. And from “Together” to “Materialists,” “Sinners” to “Anora,” modern films exploring sexuality require actors to play desire in a million different ways.
Before taking a role that requires intimacy work, watch how these 13 fascinating duos from across movie history gave life to an elemental human experience, from the buttoned-up to the bodice-ripping.
Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant, “Notorious” (1946)
The restrictive Hays Code meant that Bergman’s Alicia, a double agent infiltrating a Nazi ring, and Grant’s Devlin, her government handler, could only kiss for three seconds at a time. So, director Alfred Hitchcock filmed his glamorous leads smooching intermittently for almost three minutes straight. The two seem magnetized to each other. She hardly finishes her sentences before going in for more; his reluctance to break their embrace for spy business is palpable. It’s a single-take study in maintaining connection.
How Actors Film Realistic Sex Scenes: Preproduction to Rehearsal to SetDeborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster, “From Here to Eternity” (1953)
Director Fred Zinnemann brings you sensuality in the sand. Kerr and Lancaster play star-crossed lovers sneaking around Hawaii on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack. During a beachfront rendezvous, waves crash against the actors’ stacked bodies. (The viewer’s imagination fills in what’s not seen.) As their illicit makeout devolves into argument, the camera catches drops of the ocean falling from their tense expressions. It’s a lesson in fully throwing yourself into a scene while working with the elements—not against them.
Anita Ekberg and Marcello Mastroianni, “La Dolce Vita” (1960)
Ekberg and Mastroianni’s fountain flirtation is a master class in communicating desire without actually making contact. In Federico Fellini’s satirical dramedy, married actress Sylvia (Ekberg) playfully frolics through Rome’s Trevi Fountain in an evening gown; journalist Marcello (Mastroianni) hesitantly joins her. Under the sound of falling water in the Italian night air, the would-be lovers stand face to face, drawn into the posture of a kiss that never materializes—tension at its finest.
Marlene Clark and Duane Jones, “Ganja & Hess” (1973)
A celebration of skin, sweat, and shadow—it was the ’70s, after all—Bill Gunn’s avant-garde vampire film is bloody hot. The filmmaker lingers on intimate encounters, especially between Dr. Hess Green (Jones), a wealthy anthropologist cursed to crave blood, and Ganja Meda (Clark), the feisty widow of a colleague he drained dry. As their union leads where all vampire flicks must, the actors interpret sex as an all-consuming act. It’s intoxicating for one partner, depleting for the other.
Do Actors Really Kiss?Jean-Hugues Anglade and Vittorio Mezzogiorno, “The Wounded Man” (1983)
Patrice Chéreau’s “The Wounded Man” presents a furtive, dangerous kind of power play. Shy, ravenous Henri (Anglade) ventures out of his parents’ apartment and into the dark corridors of a train station, where he falls for Jean (Mezzogiorno), an aggressive older man. With their characters caught in an erratic push-pull, the actors play each rough kiss like a confrontation. Mezzogiorno is detached and sometimes violent; Anglade translates infatuation as self-annihilation. Toxic? Yes. Uncomfortably compelling? Also that.
Daniel Day-Lewis and Gordon Warnecke, “My Beautiful Laundrette” (1985)
In Stephen Frears’ romance, Omar (Warnecke), a Pakistani British man, and Johnny (Day-Lewis), his boyhood friend–turned-skinhead, aren’t meant to be together. But they fall hard while renovating a dilapidated laundromat—and, oh, what a spin cycle. The pair chases one heavy, necessary conversation with a furtive backroom hookup. The actors imbue it with a sense of play and lightness—especially when Day-Lewis takes a swig of Moët and spits it into a smiling Warnecke’s mouth.
Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, “Ghost” (1990)
It’s movie history: Sam Wheat (Swayze) caressing Molly Jensen (Moore) from behind as clay spins through her fingers on a pottery wheel. But the actors’ unchained chemistry in that moment also pays off big time later in Jerry Zucker’s film. Before crossing over, Sam’s spirit possesses medium Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) to share one last dance with Molly. The audience can feel every iota of longing. Swayze’s hesitant reach for Moore and quiet gasp. Moore’s closed eyes and slow, deliberate motions. It’s imaginative, layered acting to tell a supernatural story.
Modesty Garments 101: What You’ll Wear During Intimate ScenesGina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, “Bound” (1996)
In a pivotal scene at the beginning of Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s crime-thriller, mob moll Violet (Tilly) and ex-con Corky (Gershon) eye each other in an elevator, and they’re immediately fluent in different dialects of the same physical language—a filthy one. Gershon gives her butch character a louche, almost brutish swagger; Tilly sashays into her scenes as a high-femme sex siren. Those masculine and feminine energies collide to explosive results, like a blissed-out Corky rolling over in bed after a romp and sighing, “I can see again.”
Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, “Happy Together” (1997)
The Hong Kong lovers of Wong Kar-wai’s sixth feature, Fai (Leung) and Po-Wing (Cheung), are in a bad romance, but a relatable one. They break up during a trip to Argentina, but maintain a codependent arrangement after their fortunes decline. As estranged lovers in a strange land, Leung and Cheung cling to each other like driftwood in a storm. Fai nurses an injured Po-Wing in a shabby apartment; their embraces look as much like survival as desire.
Angela Bassett and Taye Diggs, “How Stella Got Her Groove Back” (1998)
During a 25th anniversary screening of Kevin Rodney Sullivan’s rom-com, Bassett and Sullivan said they collaborated to present the film’s intimacy from a woman’s point of view. It shows. In each love scene, Bassett’s Stella Payne, a single mother swept off her feet by an island Adonis named Winston Shakespeare (Diggs), commands the screen. Watch the couple’s moonlit bedroom tryst. As Diggs’ muscular form moves around Bassett, her face fills the frame in tight close-up—first in rapture, then staring down the lens in serene satisfaction.
Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader, “Secretary” (2002)
In Steven Shainberg’s erotic rom-com, the power of sadomasochism transforms secretary Lee Holloway (Gyllenhaal) from a nervous wreck to a woman full of appetite, moving balletically through office tasks while cuffed to a yoke and licking envelopes suggestively. Her boss, Mr. Grey (Spader), goes from twitchy cordiality to calm, gratified control. The actors move through scenes like co-conspirators.
Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-ri, “The Handmaiden” (2016)
As women of different stations, Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee) and her maid, Sook-hee (Kim Tae-ri), connect through glances around others. In private… whew. The bedroom sequences in Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden” certainly display the actors’ talent for full-body character work, but a particularly spicy bathtub scene showcases the precision of their choices. A watering eye. A hand on an elbow. A thumb deliberately sliding in and out of a mouth. And in multiple moments, simply some of the finest tongue acting ever put onscreen.
Agathe Rousselle and a car, “Titane” (2021)
David Cronenberg pioneered the depiction of human sexuality in the machine age with films like “Videodrome” and “Crash.” In “Titane,” director Julia Ducournau and Rousselle give that theme maximum gas in an outrageously carnal, gasp-inducing spectacle. Rousselle—acting against metal, glass, and rubber—writhes and thrusts, taking full advantage of a set that’s also her scene partner. It’s the sex scene equivalent of a monologue.
