Henry Cavill Has Given His Opinion On Filming Sex Scenes, And It Might Be A Little Surprising

Henry Cavill's in lots of things, of course. You could go to the movie theater right now and see him in Argylle.

   / ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection
/ ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

Henry recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast alongside Argylle director Matthew Vaughn — and, during their appearance, the actor decided to wax philosophical on one of the internet's favorite topics: sex scenes in movies and TV.

A closeup of Henry at an event
Theo Wargo / Getty Images

“I don’t understand them – I’m not a fan," he said. "There are circumstances where a sex scene actually is beneficial to a movie, rather than just the audience, but I think sometimes they’re overused these days."

  Anadolu / Anadolu via Getty Images
Anadolu / Anadolu via Getty Images

“It’s when you have a sense that you’re going, ‘Is this really necessary, or is it just people with less clothing on?’”

A woman watching a man sleep on a couch
Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

Henry added that the process of filming a sex scene can get "uncomfortable" when it's unclear what the purpose of the scene actually is: 'You’re thinking, ‘There’s not a performance here. There’s not a piece which is going to carry through to the rest of the movie.'"

  Han Myung-gu / WireImage
Han Myung-gu / WireImage

"Most of the time, human imagination is gonna trump it," Henry said about sex scenes in general, after adding the caveats that they can also be "great in a movie" and "really help with the storytelling."

Henry as superman being embraced by Amy Adams as Lois Lane
Warner Bros / ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

"I think it can be a little bit of a cop-out if a TV show or a movie is just filled with gyrating bodies and you’re going, ‘Okay, but what is this doing for us apart from the idea of, 'Oh, naked person, great'?"

  Han Myung-gu / WireImage
Han Myung-gu / WireImage

Well, this is a subject everyone's got an opinion on, so feel free to get loud (respectfully) in the comments — and listen to the podcast with Henry and Matthew here.