Anne Hathaway on creating intimate sex scenes in The Idea of You

Anne Hathaway on creating intimate sex scenes in The Idea of You

Ahead of the release of the heavily anticipated movie The Idea of You later this week (mark your calendars for 2nd May), leading cast member and producer Anne Hathaway, has given us some major insight into how they approached filming sex scenes between Solène and Hayes.

The Idea of You is based on Robinne Lee's novel of the same name and tells the story of a romance unfolding between 40-year-old gallery owner and single mum Solène (Hathaway) and 24-year-old boy band member Hayes (Galitzine), after they meet at Coachella.

As we've gathered from the trailer we can expect a number of intimate and steamy moments between the pair (we're talking kisses in the rain and Solène wearing a see through dress to Hayes' hotel room), and now Anne has revealed exactly how they approached those scenes.

hayes and solene
Amazon Prime

Speaking to Variety, alongside the movies' director Michael Showalter, Anne revealed they took a lot of inspiration from the The Idea of You novel for creating sex scenes that focused on Solène's pleasure.

"I was inspired by [Robinne Lee’s novel on which the film is based] in terms of … what’s the polite way of saying…Intimate acts!" she said. "In the book, Robinne describes intimate acts with the most unbelievable energy. In their first physical sexual connection, Hayes brings Solène to orgasm while [she is fully] clothed."

Anne continued: "That became our North Star in terms of expressing cinematic sex in a way that makes it about her pleasure, while also making the point that a huge part of pleasure is giving someone else pleasure."

hayes and solene
Amazon Prime

Robinne Lee, who wrote the novel which inspired the movie, has since shared more about her thought process in writing intimate sexual scenes, expressing her importance in making sure the characters were vulnerable with each other, while getting physically intimate.

Speaking to The Guardian, she said: "I had this rule that I wasn’t going to make them naked on the page unless they were naked emotionally. So in every sex scene, he reveals something of himself to her or she to him – or something of herself to herself.”

Robinne also reveals her favourite sex scene in the upcoming movie is one in which Solène walks into Hayes hotel room to have sex with him for the first time, wearing a rain coat and a see through dress and knows exactly what she's going do in that room.

Ok, can the 2nd May hurry up?

The Idea of You is available on Prime Video from 2nd May


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