--- title: How Fifty Shades of Grey's Raciest Scenes Were Shot description: Hint: Think wildlife documentaries canonical: https://time.com/3693065/fifty-shades-of-grey-sex-scenes/ author: Belinda Luscombe article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-03T15:57:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:59.381Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: How Fifty Shades of Grey's Raciest Scenes Were Shot og:description: Hint: Think wildlife documentaries og:url: https://time.com/3693065/fifty-shades-of-grey-sex-scenes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf89b5a5821971a5a/69877d5fcd1bba591d6f5066/50-shades-of-grey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: Fifty Shades of Gray og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Fifty Shades of Grey's Raciest Scenes Were Shot twitter:description: Hint: Think wildlife documentaries twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf89b5a5821971a5a/69877d5fcd1bba591d6f5066/50-shades-of-grey.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How They Shot the Sex Scenes in _Fifty Shades of Grey_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Video: Fans Welcome E.L. James to New York [Watch (HLS stream): Video: Fans Welcome E.L. James to New York](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fooCMHAM.m3u8) (7:09)  _Published 2012-03-30. Enthusiastic fans welcome E.L. James, the author of the “Fifty Shades” trilogy, to New York_  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Feb 3, 2015 3:57 PM UTC  Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan star in Fifty Shades of Grey Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan star in Fifty Shades of Grey Chuck Zlotnick—Universal Pictures  by [Belinda Luscombe](https://time.com/author/belinda-luscombe/)  ## Belinda Luscombe Editor at Large Feb 3, 2015 3:57 PM UTC Nobody signs up for a movie like [_Fifty Shades of Grey_](http://time.com/3706466/fifty-shades-of-grey-movie-erotic-science/) without understanding that they’re going to have to do a few things that they wouldn’t normally do in public. But there’s a big difference between knowing that you’re going to have to strip down in front of a camera crew and actually doing it. “I don’t know if you can ever truly prepare someone for the actual time when it comes around,” says the movie’s director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who has herself been naked in front of cameras on multiple occasions for her fine art photography. She decided to save the more intimate scenes between the movie’s two stars Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan until closer to the end of filming so they knew each other — and the crew — a little better. “But when it came to the day, it was the sudden realization of, ‘Oh, this is the day we’ve been discussing,'” says Taylor-Johnson. “I think the most important thing really was the sense of trust. The trust of how \[cinematographer\] Seamus \[McGarvey\] and I were going to shoot it. And the trust of Dakota in Jamie that he would take care of her, and the trust of Jamie in Dakota that she would take care of him. And that between us, this would be something not graphic — not porn, but much more sensuous.” **MORE** [These Were the Hardest Scenes to Shoot for the Stars of _Fifty Shades of Grey_](http://time.com/3690811/fifty-shades-of-grey-jamie-dornan-dakota-johnson-interview/) Neither of the stars are shy, per se. Dornan was an underwear model; meanwhile, in two of Johnson’s prior movies, [_The Social Network_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008Y6Q38A/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timemovies-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B008Y6Q38A&linkId=10a26c62f4de36be1810d8e488199b0a) and [_The Five Year Engagement_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0095T3ES2/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=timemovies-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B0095T3ES2&linkId=add10db6392ffa4e35e6cdd93573f41d), she has bedroom scenes with Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel, respectively. “I’m not afraid of nudity. I think women are beautiful,” says Johnson. “But it’s not easy to take off your clothes in front of a ton of people. It doesn’t become easier, but everybody understands it. Nobody’s weird about it. At least, not on set.” McGarvey says he occasionally shot the sex scenes using the same techniques wildlife photographers use to not spook animals: keep your distance. “It was on the end of a zoom and we’d let them move,” he says. “And with that tighter lens sometimes you can get a more impressionistic, abstract view of bodies.” To reduce the number of times the actors had to try and simulate an intimate moment, McGarvey also shot with two cameras wherever possible. On particularly close work, he’d shoot it himself, or use a remote control device to give the actors some space. “The camera is being operated off of a device 20 feet away from where the camera is, just so the actors don’t have a hairy old operator breathing down their backs,” he says. Another important requirement for successfully shooting intimate scenes? Keep your sense of humor. “I took a great picture: the two of them in bed together, everything going on, with this great big bearded guy standing next to them with a reflector,” says Taylor-Johnson. “It’s a very unsexy moment.” _Read next:_ [_How the Notorious Red Room Was Built in the_ ](http://time.com/3694128/how-the-notorious-red-room-was-built-in-the-fifty-shades-of-grey-movie/?xid=time%5Freadnext)[Fifty Shades of Grey _Movie_](http://time.com/3694128/how-the-notorious-red-room-was-built-in-the-fifty-shades-of-grey-movie/?xid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript I discovered the books, I would think, the way that most people did. It was word of mouth, passing of a whisper. My friend Vanessa, came up to me and said, did you read 50 Shades of Gray? And I said, no I've been in a writing slump. And she said, you need to read it. And you need to do it now. And you need to wear a pantiliner. [ SOUND ] The night of the event I was sweating, I was shvitzing. They came in in droves. They came in in limos, they came in car services. They drove in. Long Island, Westchester, Conneticut, New York City, Uptown, Downtown. [ SOUND ] They were all there to see EL James. I was completely and utterly stunned by the reaction to these books. I'm completely gobsmacked. [ CROSSTALK ] Just having it on my own Facebook page I had 650 RSVPs for this event in two days. [ CROSSTALK ] A godsend, you have, you have changed every mother and if you're not a mother, every woman's life. [ CROSSTALK ] Basically it's a, a love story. A love story with a kink is what I like to call it. [ CROSSTALK ] [ CROSSTALK ] Let me know if any of this is based on any truth of your own life. I wrote the books for myself. It's, it's my fantasy writ large. And Christian, Christian had created this kind of mystery man. He's very good looking. He's very good at sex, he's disgustingly rich, he's every woman's dream in a way. Well, he's certainly my dream. His answering grin is dazzling, and he opens the throttle and speeds around the Fair Lady and on out to sea once more and I think I'm forgiven. [ NOISE ] I read Twilight And I loved it, and then I discovered Twilight fan fiction and then I came up with the idea for what would eventually become 50 Shades and I wrote that. Cuz I was also a huge Twilight fan and why do we love it so much? First of all, the way that you write is unbelievable. Like I feel like I'm there. And second, it's a sense of security, like when he found her at the bar. When Robert Patterson found her when she was about to get raped. It's like a sense of security, a little jealousy, and good sex. And the way you describe it. No, it's doing the right thing at the right time. [ LAUGH ] My husband was a little jealous. He didn't say that he was jealous, but he was a little short with me. At first it was cute with him, but then when I was not paying attention and reading at night as opposed to watching a show that we usually watched together he would get a little bit of like, you're reading that book again? I'm like well that book is going to get you lucky later, so shh. After we have a child sometimes, you know, you, you just let you, you, everything changes in your life. [ CROSSTALK ] It's about your children and it's about, your running your career. Your career and your job and your work and your home and whatever it is, and sometimes you forget, to [ UNKNOWN ]. [ LAUGH ] At the book signing someone told me that they had never had an orgasm before, and they're 43 years old and they had an orgasm. Someone told me they had an orgasm just reading the book and I just thought, really, what's your name again? And just signed the book very quickly, I mean, you know, it was extraordinary. I love when she uses the periods for emphasis, it changes the whole dynamic of the writing. You are so beautiful, he breathes. I stare up at his dear, dear face bathed in the intensity of his gaze. It's as if he's seeing me for the first time. I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I curl up in his lap, inhaling his heavenly Christian smell. Feeling safe regardless of the fact that he's mad. Me neither, where would you like, he murmurs. He runs his hand up my bare leg to my thigh, besides this dress has its advantages. And before I'm even aware of it he's unzipping his pants, pulling me astride his lap and sinking in to me. I grasp at the back of the chair, my feet just touching the ground and we start to move. Men are visual. You know, you walk in, in lingerie, they immediately are like, oh my god, yes that's what I want. Women are not necessarily that. For me, it was that voice that was in this book, Christian's voice. Like everyone's trying to, to cast Christian. And yeah, there all these beautiful actors that I see out there. But for me, it's my husband's voice. I think that's it also. I think I was reading the book and I think I became Anna, a little bit. Not that we're so similar, I mean, we are in certain ways. That I like the way she kinds of, you know, stood up for herself. But, we all wanna be take control of a little bit. [ SOUND ] Kind of what I've noticed is that [ CROSSTALK ] what Anna achieved in the book is not something that you spell out, but what she has really done is changed this man, and I think that... This woman female character changed this man, and I think that's really at the core of it. Where, we can't change our mates, and we are told this by every psychologist on every show and in every magazine article. You cannot change your man. Men, you cannot change your woman. And she changed him! And I think that's a huge attraction for women who have been married and going through life and raising their children that, wow, she actually did it. None of us did it [ LAUGH ] but she did. [ CROSSTALK ] We have a man here. Woo! It's a decision that you have to make. Do I wanna go with this beautiful flawed damaged man or not? Because he comes with so, so much baggage. He has a lot of baggage. He's a fixer upper. It was a little bit about the sexual part but it was mostly about this innocent woman Who was able to change Mister Grey. I felt like the diva in her, in her, empowered her, and that was the uplifting part of the book, the romance part, the changing, the giving into each other. [ CROSSTALK ] a man can sometimes be treated [ CROSSTALK ]. They like to think that love can conquer all and redeem and heal and, I mean the story is about unconditional love really, underneath it all, I think. Oh my, he wants me, Christian Grey, Greek God, wants me and I want him. Here, now in the elevator. 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