Henry Cavill is "not a fan of doing" sex scenes, thinks they're "overused these days"

Actor Henry Cavill recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, talking about his career alongside Argylle director Matthew Vaughn. Although he's only in Argylle very briefly, Cavill plays the title role, the latest in a long line of high-profile parts that also includes Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher and Superman in several DC movies.

One part of the interview that's getting a lot of attention is where Cavill talks about sex scenes in movies, specifically how he doesn't think much of them. "I also don't understand them," he said. "I'm not a fan."

"I think there are circumstances where a sex scene actually is beneficial to a movie rather than just [to] the audience," Cavill continued. "I think sometimes they're overused these days. It's when you have a sense that you're going, 'Is this really necessary?' or is it people just with less clothing on? And that's when you start to get more uncomfortable, and you're thinking, 'There's not a performance here, there's not a piece which is gonna carry through to the rest of the movie.'"

"Sex scenes can be great in a movie, they can really help with the storytelling, but most of the time, the human imagination is gonna trump it. And so I think it can be a little bit of a cop-out if a TV show or a movie is filled with gyrating bodies, and you're going, 'Okay, but what is this doing for us apart from the idea of, naked person, great.'"

Cavill has done his share of sex scenes and sexy scenes. I remember the scene the first season of The Witcher where Geralt meets his love interest Yennefer for the first time. It happens in the middle of an orgy, with lots of naked people writhing and gyrating in the background. I'm going to guess Cavill is thinking of that sort of scene when he wonders whether such displays are "necessary."

Then again, you could argue that a scene like that is necessary to the plot. When Geralt meets Yennefer, she's living a decadent, hedonistic lifestyle; her relationship with Geralt marks a turn in her life, and by season 3 she's formed a little family with him and the young Ciri. So maybe the orgy is an example of the kind of sexy excess with which she fills her days before something more substantive comes along? That's a bit of a stretch, but it's illustrative of how the line between "this sex scene is important to the plot" and "this sex scene is just being thrown in to appeal to the puerile interests of the audience" can be blurry.

Henry Cavill, sex scenes, hot people, the movies, and you

Cavill's views on sex scenes are roughly in line with those of Gen V, who it was determined in a UCLA study want less sex in their media. In that study, 44.3% of 13-24 year olds surveyed thought that “romance in media is overused.” Around 39% wanted to see more depictions of aromantic and/or asexual characters, and 47.5% said that sex is not necessary to the majority of TV show and movie plots. At one point in the Happy Sad Confused interview, Matthew Vaughn jokes that maybe he and Cavill are just "English prudes." But prudishness, if that's what this is, seems to be on the rise everywhere.

It's interesting that Cavill in particular is bringing up this topic, because although he's obviously a very talented performer, I think it's hard to deny that part of his success and appeal is that he is a traditionally attractive man. Even in the comments on the Happy Sad Confused interview, people are complimenting his looks to dozens of upvotes. For example: "Henry must be the most gorgeous man who has ever walked on earth and his personality is as perfect as his looks." And it's not hard to find similar sentiments all over social media.

Of course, just because Cavill is good-looking doesn't mean he can't find sex scenes excessive and overused; in fact, given how many people thirst after him, he may be more aware than many of how dehumanizing and objectifying they can feel. And yet, looking at attractive people like Cavill is part of the reason people go to the movies and watch TV. Unless and until that stops being true, and I wouldn't count on that ever happening, discussions about the appropriateness of sex scenes will likely continue.

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