Celebs Who Admitted to Getting Aroused During On-Screen Sex Scenes

 It’s no secret that most celebrities hate sex scenes. From having to get into awkward poses (sometimes with costars they don’t get along with) to being naked in front of a whole crew of people, we honestly can’t say that we blame them. But what’s even worse? Accidentally getting aroused while shooting the scene. It might be more common than you’d think, despite the admittedly unsexy on-set situation.

The cringeworthy moment happened to both Joe Jonas and Henry Cavill, and miraculously, neither of them died from embarrassment. The Superman Returns star admitted to Men’s Fitness in 2015 that he once got aroused while shooting a scene in The Tudors.

“It’s only happened to me once, and it was very embarrassing,” Henry said. “A girl had to be on top of me, she had spectacular breasts, and I hadn’t rearranged my — stuff into a harmless position. She’s basically rubbing herself all over me and, um, it got a bit hard.”

Talk about TMI! But he didn’t stop there. He continued to explain the aftermath of being in such an awkward situation. “I had to apologize profusely afterward,” he added. “It’s not great when you’re in a professional acting environment and somebody gets a boner, is it? No, not acceptable.”

Of course, more often than not, it’s awkward. When Kate Winslet filmed The Mountain Between Us in 2017, she told E! News her friends were “so jealous” of her getting to film a steamy scene with Idris Elba. But even when you have to cozy up to one of the sexiest men in the world, things just aren’t comfortable.

“Those scenes are really awkward — it doesn’t matter which way you look at it,” she said, admitting she did whatever she had to to make things go as smoothly as possible.

“‘OK, everyone — this is how it’s going to be,'” she joked. Her taking control of the situation actually helped her costar. “It was weirder for me because I haven’t done too many love scenes,” he said.

Check out the gallery below to see other celebrities who’ve admitted to getting a little, ahem, excited during their sex scenes.

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MICHAEL VARTAN NEEDED TO STEP AWAY TO, AHEM, CALM DOWN AFTER KISSING DREW BARRYMORE.

In September 2021, Drew Barrymore had a Never Been Kissed reunion on her daytime talk show with former castmates Molly Shannon, David Arquette and Michael Vartan. While chatting about the infamous pitching mound scene, Michael got very candid about his then-crush on Drew.

“Yeah, there’s a story about the famous scene that very few people know about and I’m not sure I should … So, I get up to the mound, we embrace and we start kissing, and you really kissed me. I mean, you really kissed me,” he told Drew. “I was not ready for it in the least, and I’m a man, I was a very young man back then, and I had uh, feelings.”

Those “feelings” happened down below.

He continued, “The feelings were, they just happened, and I very quickly realized I was in a very bad spot because I was wearing very loose sort of like slacks and I thought, ‘This is going to be a disaster when they cut, I must preemptively end this.'”

“So what I did, in a panic, I just yelled cut, and bent over and said, ‘Oh guys, sorry, my back, I put my back out playing ball.’ … Anyway, I went off into my corner and … finally I was able to compose myself, and luckily the subsequent scenes went on without a hitch,” he explained, adding, “You are a very good kisser!”

Drew was ultimately flattered by Michael’s confession. “Well thank you and, you know, you weren’t married at the time, so yeah, I went for it because you were single and I felt like I wasn’t going to offend anybody,” she told him.

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HENRY CAVILL GOT AROUSED WHILE SHOOTING A SCENE IN ‘THE TUDORS.’

“It’s only happened to me once, and it was very embarrassing,” he told Men’s Fitness in 2015. He also revealed that sex scenes in general are “acutely uncomfortable.”

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EWAN MCGREGOR GOT AROUSED WHILE FILMING THE BBC PLAY ‘SCARLET AND BLACK.’

“I had to lie on top of her and they kept on pulling back the sheet,” he said. “They wanted to see my naked bum and her naked thigh, so we couldn’t wear any underwear. It was very embarrassing. It was a case of, ‘Cut! We’ll go again.’ I calmed my [erection] down, and we just got on with the scene.”

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JAMES MCAVOY GOT A “HINT” OF AN ERECTION WHILE FILMING ‘SHAMELESS.’

“I’ve had the merest hint of an erection a couple of times,” he told The Times. “It’s usually so uncomfortable that it’s more about making it look like you’re really going for this person, while convincing the person that you’re not having a good time. While at the same time not making them feel like you’re saying ‘Don’t worry, I’m not enjoying it, because you’re f—ing stinking!”

Rob Latour/BEI/Shutterstock

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TARAJI P. HENSON SAYS TERRENCE HOWARD SOMETIMES GETS AROUSED ON ‘EMPIRE.’

“[Men] can’t help if they get aroused,” she told New York station Power 105.1. “Every time we were laying there, he was talking to his male member, ‘No don’t do that. Taraji’s going to punch me.’ So, I said, ‘You know I will sock you right in the throat.’ And then he goes ‘OK, I’m going to keep my pants on.'”

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JOE JONAS GOT A “HALFIE” WHILE FILMING THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR “BODY MOVES.”

"There was definitely some half chubbing going on during the video," he revealed during a Reddit AMA. "I wouldn't say a full blown boner, but I would say a halfie."

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DANNY DYER GOT AROUSED WHILE FILMING A SCENE WITH GILLIAN ANDERSON IN ‘STRAIGHTHEADS.’

“I [did] a film with Gillian Anderson, and in the scene, I couldn’t ‘get it up,'” he said on Unzipped. “In real life, I was aroused.” When host Russell Kane asked if Gillian noticed, Danny replied, “Of course she did.”

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JESSE METCALFE NEEDED “A MINUTE” DURING A SCENE IN ‘DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES.’

“In the first scene we ever had, where Gabriella and John first had sex, we were rehearsing and then the director was like, ‘OK, get out of bed, we have to reset the set’, and I was like, ‘I need a minute,'” he told radio station 106.5 Sacramento.

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OC UKEJE SAYS HE CAN’T CONTROL IT ONCE THE “BLOOD STARTS FLOWING SOUTH.”

“It has happened to me before,” he said. “You can find a girl super attractive and when you guys are kissing, blood starts flowing south ward. But I generally just try to remember that it is a job and I do what I have to do and leave the place.”

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BENJAMIN BRATT ADMITTED TO BEING AROUSED DURING SEX SCENES IN THE PAST.

“Well it’s like Denzel Washington said, ‘You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t,'” he said on Watch What Happens Live.

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SCOTT EASTWOOD WAS “TURNED ON” DURING A STEAMY SCENE IN ‘THE LONGEST RIDE.’

"Being in a shower with a beautiful, sexy woman — I was turned on! I had fun!" he said.