Starting with actor Henry Cavill’s sharing about hating to act in hot scenes, the entertainment industry once again broke out into a debate about whether 18+ rated scenes are necessary in movies or not.

Hot scenes overshadow acting

In early February, while participating in the Happy Sad Confused podcast with director Matthew Vaughn, Henry Cavill declared that he was not a fan of the sex scene in the film.

He admits that there are cases where sex scenes actually benefit the film, not just to attract audiences. However, the actor born in 1983 thinks that sensitive scenes seem to be overused in current filmmaking. That makes him question whether it is really necessary or just people wearing less clothes?

Henry Cavill thinks today’s movies are overusing sex scenes. Photo: Allstar.

The 41-year-old Superman added that the screenwriter and director might have added the sex scenes for storytelling purposes, but fans might not have noticed that aspect, and would have focused only on the actor’s naked body.

In today’s climate of 18+ images on television and in movies, Cavill seems like a lone moral crusader fighting for his own ideals. However, another figure has come to his side. She is a veteran performer who has seen many changes on screen and has a deep understanding of the demands that actors have to take their clothes off in the name of art.

Joanna Lumley told Radio Times she wanted to cut all sex scenes from the film.

“The minute you take your clothes off, the audience is looking at you, the actor, and your features – what your breasts and genitals look like. You immediately lose the character that you’ve built. There’s a playground element to it – pull your pants down and see what you’ve got. I would cut them off completely. They slow things down. They’re gross and horrible,” the actress, born in 1946, said.

The British MC emphasized that nudity is considered something all actresses have to endure, including veteran stars like Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Christie…

According to Joanna Lumley, hot scenes only distract the audience and affect the flow of the film. Photo: Getty Images.

A 2019 study found that movies made in the 2010s had less nudity than any other decade since the 1960s. Specifically, only 1.21% of movies made in the 2010s featured nudity. This may be because the landscape has changed. Directors who once wouldn’t have thought twice about getting a star to strip for a harmless titillating moment are now faced with the reality that nude scenes will live on the internet forever.

In October 2023, a survey of 1,500 teenagers conducted by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) found that the demand for on-screen sex is decreasing. The majority of respondents said that sex is not necessary in movies to serve the plot, while many expressed that they would like to see more focus on platonic friendships.

Henry Cavill wrong to criticize hot scenes?

But that research seems outdated. 2023 has seen a resurgence of films filled with bold and unusual sex scenes. Of course, not all of that sex is necessary. Despite the long and heated debate about its misogyny, Poor Things is a story about a woman who uses sex to build her entire character. So removing the 18+ imagery would strip the film of its heart. But if you remove the sex scene from Oppenheimer , including Florence Pugh taking off her shirt, we are left with the full, just slightly shorter, version of the “father” of the atomic bomb.

The sex scenes are considered the heart of Poor Things.

The same is true of television. HBO’s disastrous series The Idol feels like it was created as a vehicle for nudity, with the intention of getting attention like other shows before it. But the results are terrible, because what remains is a lot of pointless nudity. The focus of the entire production is on the actors’ naked bodies, at the expense of character, plot and lacklustre acting. It fails for the reason Ms Lumley gave in the Radio Times – “pull down your pants and see what you’ve got”. If audiences really just wanted to see naked actors, they could easily find a ton of more authentic footage online. Why would they sign up for an expensive streaming service to watch outdated TV dramas when everyone has a mobile phone and wifi?

On The Guardian , British writer Stuart Heritage has an essay analyzing why Henry Cavill was wrong to criticize the hot scene.

The author of Bedtime Stories for Worried Liberals suggests that this view may stem from personal experience. The actor’s first film, Hotel Laguna, was full of unnecessary, boring sex scenes. Likewise, the TV series The Tudors was also filled with ridiculous scenes.

“Perhaps if you spent years of your life unhappily enduring in front of your coworkers knowing that your vulnerable moment would be forever immortalized on the Internet without any context, you wouldn’t be interested in the idea,” Heritage writes.

However, Heritage suggests that could change if Henry Cavill works with the right director. The right encouragement, a good script and the chance to win an Oscar might help him soften his stance on on-screen sex, and even enjoy it.

Heritage points to Poor Things , All of Us Strangers , and Saltburn as examples of works that show sex as necessary to the plot and enjoyable.

The Idol represents movies that contain meaningless, terrible sex scenes. Photo: HBO.