The hottest non-sex scene ever? Behind the scenes of ‘Easy A’

In the pantheon of great teen comedies, 2010’s Easy A should definitely be getting more love. Not only did it truly introduce us to the wonder of Emma Stone, it was just a really great movie. It had all the elements of a 90s-esque teen comedy: inspired by classic lit (The Scarlet Letter), memorable moments, charming lead, and it’s just flat out funny. We are all Olive Penderghast.

With the tenth anniversary of Easy A approaching, we’re getting some tea spilled about the behind-the-scenes process. Director Will Gluck is sharing the secret behind the hottest non-sex scene ever in Easy A. As you all know, Olive just pretended to have sex. She didn’t really actually. Here’s how it was done, if you were curious about this not-really sex scene.

Faux sex scene

What starts the majority of the plot in Easy A is when Oliver and her friend Brandon (Dan Byrd) decide to stage a very public “sex scene” behind closed doors at a party. Olive agrees to this because Brandon is getting bullied for his sexuality. While everyone hears what they think is wild sex going on, Brandon and Olive are grunting, jumping on the bed, smacking each other – whatever they have to do.

It works. Everyone totally buys what just happened. On the scene itself, Gluck said, “Emma smacked Dan many times, and initially, as I recall, Emma didn’t want to smack him hard. And Dan is just such a trouper, telling her, ‘You have to keep smacking me, you have to keep smacking me!’ And if you watch the movie, those are real smacks . . . But the only way that works is if they committed. And that was really fun.”

The whole scene was a commentary on how high school students may have unrealistic sexual expectations. It was meant to be as wild as possible to poke at those awkward and dramatized expectations. Stone, at the time, was only 20, so she felt a little bit weird with smacking her co-star, but he was a good sport about it. Thus one of the best fake sex scenes in movie history was created.

Emma Stone fakes an asthma attack

Gluck said that for the fake sex scene to work plotwise, the pair had to get “as sweaty and as physical” as one would get during sex. During filming the scene, the duo broke the bed, twice, while jumping on it. Also during the filming, Stone ended up faking an asthma attack. Apparently, she jumped on the bed so much she was starting to feel ill. 

So they stopped filming and a doctor treated her. At the end of it, Stone admitted that she faked the whole thing. She said, “I don’t actually have asthma; I’m just out of shape.” And that’s commitment. Anyone who ever faked to get out of gym class truly gets the struggle.

Other facts

Bryd had to re-record his grunts in ADR because the ones that were film in the fake sex scene were, according to Gluck, “too hoarse.” While people know Easy A as a PG-13 film that featured Amanda Bynes and got “Pocketful of Sunshine” stuck in our heads forever, it was originally rated R with a curse word count of 246 before they had to cut most of them out.

Gluck also called the Easy A fake sex scene “one of the most innocent sex scenes” that he’s ever done. Mainly it comes down to it being done from perspective of people who have yet to experience sex.