Starstruck’s Emma Sidi has said it was “strange” filming a sex scene with her real-life boyfriend Al Roberts for the BBC Three comedy’s upcoming second season.
Season 2 of the show, which stars Rose Matafeo as 20-something Jessie who discovers after a one-night stand that she slept with a film star, opens with Jessie walking in on her best friend Kate (Sidi) having sex in the living room with her boyfriend Ian (Roberts).
Sidi, who’s played Kate since Starstruck season 1, told RadioTimes.com in an exclusive interview that shooting the scene with her boyfriend and Stath Lets Flats star Roberts was “so weird that it wasn’t that weird”.
“That was what was a bit strange about it. I kiss Al a lot and so, in that scene I was kissing my real boyfriend and I was nervous before it. But actually, in that situation, it was like, ‘Oh, yeah, I do this every day.’”
She added that the production hired an intimacy co-ordinator to help with the scene.
“The thing that is great is that now nowadays, you know, a lot of people have been talking about it, we have intimacy coordinators. So we even had an intimacy coordinator for this really silly sex scene in between a real-life couple.
“Both of us were thinking like, do we really need this? But actually, oh my God, it made such a difference. We were so lucky to have it. Because, you know, having comedy sex for a few seconds is obviously very different to the real thing,” she laughed.
“Everybody has their kinks but we’re not on camera people you know, so it was really, really helpful to have an outside eye basically give us guidance, make us feel comfortable, and [they] gave us a bouncy ball that we would never have thought of, obviously, that just really helped.”
She continued: “It made me feel very lucky about the time we’re living in that even if it’s your own boyfriend, there are still so many things in place to make you feel as comfortable and supportive as possible. But yeah, it was memorable. I feel like it’s something I might mention or actually maybe not mention to grandchildren.”