It's safe to say that most people are aware of the events that took place on the set of 'The Affair.' But as such an iconic part of the story, it can't be left out. I flew out to New York to speak to Emma Watson, and she agreed to speak about the shoot for the first time.
*****
The timing was absurd, I mean 'The Affair' was a pretty raunchy film, as everyone knows. Ryan and I spent several weeks lying around naked. It was cool, he made me feel comfortable, it was just another job.
On the day we were shooting another sex scene, and this one was pretty full on. They would try to limit the amount of people on set whenever we were naked, although there was still a crew of ten when I arrived, so I would wear a dressing gown until we started. Ryan only wore a towel, he was confident like that, still is to this day.
Mike, the director, he went through the scene with us. He needed it to be raw and animalistic; I guess that's what he got.
I'd never gone topless on camera before, let alone full frontal. I'd shown a bit of leg in 'The Bling Ring' but this was totally different. No more mystery, the whole world was about to see me naked. I took a lot of convincing, but I believed in Mike's vision for the project. I felt like I could be a part of something special, and not compromise my integrity. Saying that, when the project was announced we crashed the studios website. We couldn't kid ourselves that the film wouldn't attract unwanted attention, and we were even preparing theatres to be on guard for men in large coats!
That day we'd been shooting for about five hours, and the crew had stolen plenty of glances. Ryan, Mike and I had decided to shoot every scene naked, and despite being on show all morning, everyone continued to stare as I took my place on the bed in the middle of the studio. A female assistant came over to hand me a small flesh coloured pillow, I placed it between my legs as Ryan came over. I tried not to look at his package, he is nicely hung, as you can see in the final cut. We smiled at each other nervously as I spread my legs; I was trying so hard to be professional. Our directions were simple; our characters are really into each other, and having mind blowing sex.
We shot for the next hour or so, kissing and groping whilst grinding against the flesh coloured pillow. You would have expected us to get excited at some point, but it wasn't like that, a film set is not a sexy place to be. The whole thing is pretty physical, and with the studio lights blaring down on you it can get quite uncomfortable. We would break to take on fluids and I would slip back into my gown. Mike would give us a few points to work on, then 15 minutes later we were back at it.