Yahoo Lifestyle E L James reveals hilariously extreme lengths of 'Fifty Shades' sex research
Watch: E. L. James discusses her research for Audi R8 sex scene
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E L James has revealed she enlisted the services of a luxury car showroom and her husband in order to check the plausibility of a Fifty Shades sex scene.
Appearing on the latest episode of White Wine Question Time with Kate Thornton, the 58-year-old novelist revealed she wanted to check the veracity of a sequence from 2012 novel Fifty Shades Freed.
The scene features protagonists Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele having sex in the front seat of a £100,000 Audi R8 gifted to Ana by Christian — but James wanted to check whether that was possible.
"I've never sat in an R8, so I have no idea," the author admitted, revealing she rang her local Audi garage to check.
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"I said: 'Hi, I'm writing an erotic novel, blah, blah, blah. Can you have sex in an R8?' And the guy said: 'No, there's absolutely no way'."
James revealed she wrote the chapter anyway, but decided to visit the garage in order to get a closer look.
"This beautiful Audi R8 was in the reception area. And I said to the reception: 'Can you just sit in the car, you know?' And she said: 'Yeah, go ahead.'
"And I sat. And I sort of sidled in, and I just looked around, and I said: 'She could totally have sex in here'."
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James went on to confess that she also got her "poor husband" involved, testing out the plausibility of the scene in her own Mini.
She added: "On a Saturday afternoon, I'm sitting on his lap in my Mini and said: 'Right, now, you put your feet there'.
"And we were fully clothed, obviously, and there was a football match. We used to live near Bedford Football Stadium.
"And these people were walking down the road going: 'What are those two doing?'
"I was just working out the choreography, because is all about choreography."
James is currently promoting her new novel Freed, which tells the story of the final Fifty Shades novel from Christian's perspective — completing the trilogy of those spin-off tales.
Across the Fifty Shades series, more than 125 million books have been sold worldwide.
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James revealed the process of putting together Fifty Shades merchandise — in collaboration with Lovehoney — has been an eye-opening one, worrying some of the products were too "high level".
She added: "I remember nipple clamps that you could jumpstart Frankenstein with. I was thinking: ‘No no no. Let's take it down a notch.’
“And then my son would come in and say: ‘Mum, can you get the sex toys off the table? Because my chemistry teacher's coming'.”
Buy it: Freed by E L James | £5 (Was £8.99) from Amazon
Watch: Trailer for Fifty Shades Freed
