--- title: Erin Cressida Wilson: 2017 Oscars and Hollywood Sex Scenes description: Find out what 'Secretary' screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson has to say about the 2017 Oscar nominations and Hollywood's portrayal of women in sex scenes. canonical: https://time.com/4681961/2017-oscars-hollywood-sex-scenes/ author: Erin Cressida Wilson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-24T17:51:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:56.773Z og:title: How to Fix Hollywood’s Sexist Problem With Sex Scenes og:description: ‘The Girl on the Train’ screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson offers a solution og:url: https://time.com/4681961/2017-oscars-hollywood-sex-scenes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e3101e23bc02245/6988bbcc7cdbacd409d57419/elle-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1469 og:image:height: 826 og:image:alt: elle-2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Fix Hollywood’s Sexist Problem With Sex Scenes twitter:description: ‘The Girl on the Train’ screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson offers a solution twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e3101e23bc02245/6988bbcc7cdbacd409d57419/elle-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Fix Hollywood’s Sexist Problem With Sex Scenes > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=811876c5-3f86-48fe-98d3-15df7af52499&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1) by [Erin Cressida Wilson](https://time.com/author/erin-cressida-wilson/) ## Erin Cressida Wilson Feb 24, 2017 5:51 PM UTC  Isabelle Huppert and Laurent Lafitte in Elle Isabelle Huppert and Laurent Lafitte in Elle SBS Productions by [Erin Cressida Wilson](https://time.com/author/erin-cressida-wilson/) ## Erin Cressida Wilson Feb 24, 2017 5:51 PM UTC When Constance first has sex with Parkin in Pascale Ferran’s [_Lady Chatterley_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459880/), you can see it on her face: she’s confused, she’s horrified, she’s curious, she’s unsure of herself. It’s the sexiest scene in one of the [sexiest movies](http://time.com/4663265/sexiest-movies-of-all-time/?iid=sr-link1) of all time, because it’s awkward. Awkward is real. There’s no one way that women need to be portrayed, just as there’s no one way that people like to have sex. But American films too often portray [female sexuality](http://motto.time.com/4251266/end-stigma-women-sex/) in a disempowering manner. What we see is too general, rarely showing a woman’s [unique qualities or desires](http://motto.time.com/4658386/babeland-founder-sex-toy-guide/), or the vulnerability we need in order to believe it. It’s not at all compelling when screenwriters become too literal and write, “Now they have intercourse. Cut away.” Yet that’s what we get 99% of the time. Our films are rife with fake orgasms — women are supposed to scream and huff and puff, the pornographic idea of what a female orgasm looks like, or the camera cuts away and those moments aren’t depicted at all. When Isabelle Huppert’s character has an orgasm in _Elle_, it looks real because she’s an astonishing actress — I’m thrilled she was nominated for Best Actress at this year’s Oscars — and because what she’s doing is believable and real and human and embarrassing. She’s a grandmother teetering on the ledge of a table with a pair of binoculars in one hand and the other up her skirt, watching the neighbor. Not bad. A good sex scene is a dance. It’s a choreography. It’s about power dynamics and sustaining secrets until they explode, which should also be true of every scene you write. Who’s on top and who’s on the bottom is as essential for a scene you set in the courtroom as it is for a scene you set in bed. If you jump from A to D and you haven’t properly prepared the audience, it’s jarring. They won’t believe it. I’ll never forget seeing _In the Cut_ in a very big theater in the middle of the day, packed with people. I was beside myself with arousal, and I hadn’t at all expected to be. The timing, the chemistry between the two actors onscreen — Jane Campion, the director and writer, knew the answers to the questions: When are we ready to suddenly see Mark Ruffalo’s unbelievable penis? And when are we ready to hear his voice, speaking in this way that plays into a particular female fantasy? The moments and the pages before a sex scene that works are like foreplay — the entire film script becomes sensual, relying on all the senses and somehow awakening an erotic mind and eye, so when the sex finally does happen, the audience is prepared to believe it. Of course, what’s sexy to someone may not be to someone else. I’ve asked men which films they find the sexiest, and many say _Belle de Jour_, to which I have to ask why. Is it because you just think Catherine Deneuve is beautiful, or do you actually find it sexy? They always say there’s just something about the idea of a bored housewife who wants to become a whore. What’s sexy about that? I don’t get it, but that’s fine. It’s all individual preference. In my own work, I’ve always liked collaborating with male directors, because I appreciate the combination of their male gaze on top of my female gaze. But this doesn’t happen enough. I’m tempted to say that this goes without saying, but apparently it needs to be said: There are not enough female directors or writers working in Hollywood. No women have been nominated for directing or writing Oscars this year, with the [exception of Allison Schroeder](http://oscar.go.com/nominees/writing-adapted-screenplay), who co-wrote _Hidden Figures_. Why aren’t people going bananas over _that_? Yes, we’ve made some progress when it comes to women’s representation and female sexuality. Huppert is an Oscar contender for a role that delves into treacherous unknowns of longing and desire and ambivalence — something we’ve rarely seen before. And we have television shows like _Girls_, which I find very sexually empowering for women. But in many ways, we’re still in the Dark Ages. (_As told to Lucy Feldman_) _Erin Cressida Wilson won the Independent Spirit Award for the cult classic, “Secretary,” and most recently wrote the film adaptation of “The Girl on the Train.”_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4681961/2017-oscars-hollywood-sex-scenes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4681961/2017-oscars-hollywood-sex-scenes/"},"headline":"How to Fix Hollywood’s Sexist Problem With Sex Scenes","datePublished":"2017-02-24T17:51:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:56.773Z","description":"‘The Girl on the Train’ screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson offers a solution","url":"https://time.com/4681961/2017-oscars-hollywood-sex-scenes/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e3101e23bc02245/6988bbcc7cdbacd409d57419/elle-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Erin Cressida Wilson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/erin-cressida-wilson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e3101e23bc02245/6988bbcc7cdbacd409d57419/elle-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"elle-2","caption":"Isabelle Huppert and Laurent Lafitte in Elle","creditText":"SBS Productions","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4681961/2017-oscars-hollywood-sex-scenes/","name":"How to Fix Hollywood’s Sexist Problem With Sex Scenes"}}]}] ```