Lady Chatterley’s Lover on Netflix: how were the sex scenes shot?

Available since December 2 on Netflix, Lady Chatterley’s Lover should attract fans of sensual love stories. Adapted from the novel of the same name by DH Lawrence, this dramatic film tells the passionate and sensual romance between Constance, alias Lady Chatterley, a young married woman, whose husband has become paralyzed and sexually impotent, and a gamekeeper named Oliver Mellos .

The book had caused a scandal in the 1920s when it was published due to the explicit sex scenes depicted in it, which shocked the society of the time. Its adaptation by French director, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (Mrs. America, American Crime Story, Nevada), contains several explicit sex scenes, which led Netflix to classify the film in the category “recommended for those over 18 “.

Choreographed sex scenes that make sense

For these sex scenes between the two main characters, played by Emma Corrin (The Crown) and Jack O’Connell (Skins), Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre worked with the famous Ita O’Brien, an intimacy coordinator who already proven on the series Sex Education and Normal People.

What the French director really liked in her collaboration with Ita O’Brien was the fact of choreographing the sex scenes. The intimacy coordinator was a choreographer and worked with dancers in ballet corps. This makes it possible to bring intensity to this kind of scene, as Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre explains to us:

“Dance is important, it involves movements and body language. So we worked a lot on that, and especially on the emotion behind the stage. Because what matters is is what it tells, what it provides as emotion and how it moves the characters forward in their relationship and in their transformation.These scenes tell something very precise and intimate about this slider, about what it means this love.”

The scenes were therefore first worked on with the dancers, then the actors were invited to rehearsals to understand the choreography and appropriate this body play. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre evoked her inspirations and references, such as the erotic drawings of Egon Schiele, and collaborated with Ita O’Brien to shape the movements in these major scenes.

The presence of an intimacy coordinator also makes it possible to have a healthier work environment, based on trust, respect and communication. All the discussions made it possible to move forward more freely in the process:

“We were able to talk to each other about everything that can be embarrassing in this kind of scene, about prostheses and very technical, basic things, but at the same time that you have to evacuate. Afterwards, we are much more relieved because in the end , you can really abandon yourself to the work and be as precise as possible.”

Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix

Intimacy coordinator, a job that needs to be democratized

Being both a director and an actress, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre appreciated her collaboration with an intimacy coordinator, a professional who was not present on film sets a few years ago. Yet, intimacy coordinators are like stunt coordinators. The French filmmaker believes that their role is important and beneficial for cinema:

“The sex scenes, ultimately, are often quite unsuccessful in the cinema because we want to get rid of them, because we are very uncomfortable, both the actors and the team. Ita was the perfect person for this project, it allowed us to completely sexualize these scenes.

Obviously, when we shot them, there was all the sensuality possible, but also a professional and free environment. It was quite a good child because we had a lot of fun. I think that if she hadn’t been there, it would have been much more complicated to find this ease in fact.

And it was very important to have it, in the interest of the film, it was essential for the direction, the acting and the story. And she really helped me to go much further than I could have imagined. So it was a big surprise. In fact, this collaboration was very important and and really, I would do it again.”

A great chemistry between Emma and Jack

The icing on the cake, in addition to the choreographies of Ita and the staging of Laure, the two main actors Emma and Jack had an undeniable chemistry on the set, which was transcribed on the screen. A chance according to Laure:

“We can’t invent it. We can work as much as we want, if there’s no chemistry, it’s more complicated. They can pretend. But hey, there’s had a real mutual trust, a bit like soul mates.”

Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix

Emma, ​​who joined the cast before Jack, discussed a lot beforehand with Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, who saw in Emma the perfect Lady Chatterley:

“We had the same desire to tell about ecstatic, explosive freedom through the body. There is something very rebellious about them, which is not necessarily visible at first glance, but which is very subtle. iel, but also a way of asserting oneself against the current.

Her interpretation of Diana was very singular with a surprising energy. They really appropriated the character of Lady Chatterley with her unique way of moving, of expressing herself.”

After being cast, Jack O’Connell joined the discussion with the same desires and the same vision of things. The actor brought his strength and sensitivity to match Emma’s energy in the film:

“We really wanted to tell something in common about the time of the film and our time, about the relationship between man and woman. We wanted Jack to interpret a sensitive character, between great refinement and a much more opaque and more withdrawn. There is something very tender and very vulnerable about Jack. And that was very important that this character not be a cliché of the man who flees in the woods.”

Thanks to this immense work, these discussions, this chemistry and the presence of an intimacy coordinator, Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell were able to deliver sex scenes of great beauty, which are one of the major assets of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, to discover on Netflix.

Interview by Mégane Choquet on November 21, 2022.