How ‘Creature Commandos’ Recorded That Animated Sex Scene: ‘It Was Long Minutes of Us Kissing Our Hands’

Adam B. Vary

5 December 2024 at 8:30 pm·3-min read

SPOILER WARNING: This story discusses plot developments in Episode 2 of “Creature Commandos,” now streaming on Max.

When James Gunn created the animated DC Studios series “Creature Commandos” — about a team of non-human inmates dragooned into serving as a quasi-black ops team — he wanted the show to demonstrate “that you can do anything” in the new DC Universe. In practice, that meant that along with the show’s baroquely violent fight scenes, on occasion, the characters are depicted … well …

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“Fucking?” Gunn offers.

Yes, yes they are. In Episode 2, for example, the human leader of the Commandos, Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo), finally gives in to the relentless flirtation by Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova), heir to the throne of the fictional Eastern European country of Pokolistan and the person Rick and the Commandos were sent to protect. After Rick wins a bruising late night brawl with one of his charges, Ilana tends to his wounds while Rick is stripped to just his boxer briefs. One thing leads to another, and … well …

“They’re fucking in the bathroom,” Gunn says. The scene is played for comedy, of course, as well as an opportunity to demonstrate that the upstanding Rick is still capable of succumbing to an ethical lapse. But mostly, Gunn saw it as a chance to treat his characters as flesh-and-blood human beings.

“They’re two adults that are attracted to each other, and they’re both very good-looking people,” he says. “Let’s just show ’em having sex in the bathroom.”

Capturing this scene with his actors, however, was anything but sexy. Grillo and Bakalova recorded it together over Zoom, with Gunn directing them.

“It was hilarious,” Bakalova says. “I was in one country, Frank was in a different country. And we just had to make sounds. Because both of these characters are very aggressive, it was long minutes of us kissing our hands, because you have to recreate the sound of kissing. And it’s like, ‘Oh, what am I even doing?’”

Just thinking about the sequence causes Gunn to double over in laughter. “I had to put myself on mute because I was laughing so hard,” he says. “I have video. It’s Maria and Frank making out with their hands and moaning and smacking their tongues against their fists. I will post that at the time that the episode comes out, because it’s really funny.” (Gunn hasn’t yet done so, but we’ve been checking.)

Beyond the awkwardness factor, recording the sequence proved to be an unexpected challenge for the actors because it was so over-the-top. “I don’t make those sounds so consistently throughout the course of the session of sex,” Grillo says with a sheepish grin. “When we were doing this, I was going, ‘This sounds ridiculous. Who has sex like this?’ And yet I watch it and I go, wow, it works great. And I’m embarrassed watching myself, which is a good thing!”

That feeling was perhaps amplified given who Grillo chose to watch the scene with.

“I screened it at my house with my 16-year-old son,” the actor says. “And he goes, ‘Oh my…’ and I go, ‘It’s just, it’s animated!’” Grillo laughs. “He goes, ‘It’s your voice.’”

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