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Kylie Jenner apparently doesn’t want her boyfriend Timothee Chalamet acting in sex scenes – and I think she’s right.

While I don’t condone one partner telling another what to do with their career, I do support her plea for no more sex scenes. 

Because, in my opinion, them being so commonplace is boring, problematic, and often adds very little to a film or TV show. 

It was reported that Kylie expressed discomfort when it comes to her boyfriend’s intimate acting after his Marty Supreme co-star Gwyneth Paltrow emphasised how many sex scenes there are in the upcoming movie. 

It’s since been rumoured that Kylie has asked her beau not to film any more. 

I think a simple solution to mine and Kylie’s problems (although I do stress she has no right to tell Chalamet what to do) would be to give these clips the boot entirely. 

This might sound prudish, and don’t get me wrong, I was just as enthralled by Bridgerton’s raunchy plot in 2020 as the next person, but something has shifted over time.

Watching actors strip off and simulate sex on screen – especially when it’s totally arbitrary – feels a bit like a hangover from a different time, and a little bit seedy and lazy.

And I’m talking all sex scenes – clothed, partially covered, and full frontal nudity. Why are they necessary? 

One that always sticks out at me as being entirely redundant is that between Harry Styles and Florence Pugh, moments into Don’t Worry Darling. 

Both fully clothed, Styles simulates oral sex on Pugh (so really it’s just him moving his head around between her thighs while she writhed around on a table), and I still don’t know for what reason. 

The scene is supposed to highlight how in love the couple is at the start of the film, but to me it felt gratuitous and placed simply to excite the popstar’s fanbase with the chance to see the heartthrob in the throes of passion.

Anyone But You is another example of a unwanted romp, this time between Hollywood heartthrobs Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney.

The moment was supposed to highlight a change in their characters’ feelings for one another as their fake relationship developed into something real, but their steamy shower scene just felt like a way to get the actors in the buff because Powell and Sweeney are both considered desirable to audiences, and sex sells.

I think there were a number of intimate and sweet moments within Anyone But You that showed intimacy between the main characters in a far better way (for example when she burns her tongue and he blows on it, weird but it works) and showing the couple waking up in bed together would have done the same narrative job as the sex scene.

The more gratuitous snippets just feel like cop outs from producers who want to spice up their films and sell their movies, but with no tangible reasoning. 

There are far more creative ways to show attraction and longing in cinema, which is why some of the most romantic moments have nothing to do with sex.

In 2005, Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr Darcy’s hand flex after helping Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennett out of a carriage had the world in a chokehold. To be honest, 20 years later, it still does.

The scene is considered immeasurably romantic and shows so much more longing, confusion, and conflicting emotions than a sex scene has since.

The same goes for the moment Peeta touches Katniss’s plait in The Hunger Games as they count down to eating poison. That small gesture showed a lot more desire and intimacy than many of the intimate scenes on screen on a daily basis.

‘But sex scenes aren’t just about love,’ I hear you cry. 

And of course, you’re right. But I would still argue that you don’t need to show a pair in the act to get across desire, lust, tension, or whatever other emotion. 

Showing Barry Keoghan slurp Jacob Elordi’s semen filled bathtub water in Saltburn had a far greater impact than a sex scene ever could.

The writers could have easily filmed a sex scene between the pair and had it play out as a fantasy of Keoghan’s character, but they chose to show his longing to consume Elordi’s character in a much cleverer way.

Making his character basically neck on with the drain hole made for much more compelling viewing in my humble opinion. 

Even in the raunchy film Babygirl, fans were mostly left talking about Nicole Kidman drinking a glass of milk in the movie, arguably the least ‘sexy’ part of the film.

The moment managed to highlight her character’s willingness to be sexually dominated, without the scene requiring actual sex.

This isn’t to say that films about sex don’t have a purpose, and can be moving, important pieces of art.

Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, is a movie about sex and self-discovery that handles intimacy and sexual scenes perfectly.

Nothing about it felt gratuitous or exploitative, and the film used these intimate scenes to share a compelling story about love and loss.

Similarly, the new series Dying For Sex on Disney portrays various sex scenes and shows how important sex is for the main character’s journey of self-discovery.

None of the intimate scenes are superfluous, and all of them are perfectly utilised to tell a story.

What I am fed up with is sex scenes just for the sake of sex scenes. Sex scenes as a result of lazy filmmaking and a lack of creativity. 

If people want to watch pornography, they can do so incredibly easily. I think cinema should be making use of every storytelling tool in their arsenal and finding a way to portray the same level of intimacy on screen that’s original and exciting.

Sex scenes were once considered scandalous or artistic, but wedging one into a film to appeal to audiences who want to gawp at a hot actor just doesn’t really sit well with me anymore.

I’m not going to stop watching films or TV shows with sex scenes or shield my eyes when they come on, but I’d love to see something more than simulated sex on screen – give me a hand flex any day. 

And like Kylie Jenner, I don’t want to see Timothee Chalamet in the act. 

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The Oscars have added a new category for stunt design for the 100th Academy Awards, and fans believe Tom Cruise should receive an honorary award for his stuntwork.

There have long been calls to recognise stunts officially at the prestigious award ceremony, which began in 1929.

From 2027, the Academy Awards will introduce a Best Stunt Design category, shining a light on the designers of movie stunts.

Announcing the news, Academy CEO Bill Kramer and president Janet Yan said in a joint statement: ‘Since the early days of cinema, stunt design has been an integral part of filmmaking.

‘We are proud to honour the innovative work of these technical and creative artists, and we congratulate them for their commitment and dedication in reaching this momentous occasion.’

Stuntman David Leitch, who began his career as a stunt double for Brad Pitt, gave numerous presentations to the Academy about including a category for stunts alongside stunt coordinator and designer Chris O’Hara.

Reacting to the news, Leitch said: ‘This has been a long journey for so many of us.’

Only two stunt performers have ever been recognised at the Oscars – Hal Needham in 2012, and before that, Yakima Canutt in 1966.

Cruise, who is renowned for performing his own stunts even at the age of 62, has had fans rallying for him online to receive a gong for his decades of stunts.

It has been reported Cruise has been doing his own stunts since the 1990s, with the first Mission: Impossible film kickstarting it all.

He famously performed the vault heist at the CIA Langley facility, which saw him suspended above the floor, as well as the jaw-dropping exploding aquarium scene.

Across seven Mission: Impossible films, two Top Gun films, two Jack Reacher films, and The Mummy in 2017, the acclaimed actor has performed his own death-defying stunts.

Ben Everard posted: ‘Give Tom Cruise the first honorary stunt Oscar. Lifetime achievement.’

Josh Blumenkranz agreed, writing: ‘I just want Tom Cruise to get his honorary Oscar. The man is the king of stunts and should have been the first person to get it. But finally they added the category!!!’

As it happens, Cruise has never won an Oscar, but has been nominated four times across his career including Best Picture for Top Gun: Maverick.

‘They really don’t want Tom Cruise to win an Oscar. If there’s a category he would’ve been nailed on to win is the Stunt category, now they add it after the Mission Impossible films end !!,’ Snackbytes wrote, pointing out that the final Mission: Impossible film will be released on May 21, 2025.

Travis Glover added: ‘They should give Tom Cruise and the whole Mission: Impossible stunt team an Honorary Oscar for their contributions to stunt community.’

The upcoming Mission: Impossible film – The Final Reckoning – also sees the actor at his daredevil best, despite now being in his 60s.

These stunts are high risk, high reward, as it was reported last year that they had earned the actor a $600 million net worth.

The most recent Mission: Impossible film saw Cruise take part in what has been described as ‘the biggest stunt in cinema history’ where he literally drove off a cliff on a motorbike.

For it, an enormous ramp was constructed after months of training for a sequence that lasted all of five minutes, proving how much effort goes into the moments we see on the big screen.

Speaking about the stunt, he said, ‘You train and drill every little last act, over and over and over and over again,’ having done over 30 jumps per day and over 500 skydives in total.

His career hasn’t been without injury, however, with the actor breaking his ankle while filming Mission: Impossible – Fallout during a scene in which he jumped across high-rise building roofs.

During an appearance on the Graham Norton Show, he detailed how one jump saw him miss the mark: ‘I knew instantly my ankle was broken, and I really didn’t want to do it again, so I just got up and carried on with the take. I said, “It’s broken. That’s a wrap. Take me to hospital”, and then everyone got on the phone and made their vacation arrangements.’

He also broke two ribs during the filming of Mission: Impossible 3 in a scene where fighter jets bomb the Chesapeake Bay Bridge while his character Ethan Hunt is on it.

With so much danger and hard work that goes into the art of stunt performing, it’s no wonder the news that the Academy is finally recognising stunts in the Oscars has been met with celebration.

Director Paul Feig wrote on X: ‘Thank you ⁦@TheAcademy for finally recognizing the amazing work and contributions of the stunt community.

‘They are the unsung heroes of our industry and deserve all the recognition they can get. To all my stunt friends, you are the best. Congrats!!!’

Indian filmmaker S. S. Rajamouli said: ‘At last!! After a 100-year wait!!! Ecstatic for the new Oscars stunt design category for the films releasing in 2027!

‘Huge thanks to David Leitch, Chris O’Hara, and the stunt community for making this historic recognition possible, and to @TheAcademy, CEO Bill Kramer, and President Janet Yang for honoring the power of stunt work. Thrilled to see #RRRMovie’s action visuals shining in the announcement!’

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Christopher Landon has revealed to Metro that directing Drop was ‘cathartic’ for him following horrific online abuse during the controversy around Scream 7.

Starring The White Lotus actress Meghann Fahy and It Ends With Us actor Brandon Sklenar, Drop is a new thriller that takes place on a first date that goes horribly wrong.

The film sees Violet (Fahy) threatened via digidrop (think AirDrop) to murder her date Henry (Sklenar) or else her son will be murdered in a home invasion, which she can witness on her home CCTV on her phone.

The high-stakes thriller seems completely unfathomable, but for the director, he revealed that be threatened by an invisible force was sadly something he could relate to.

Landon was appointed the director of Scream 7 in 2023 and described the job as a dream, but quickly things turned sour as Melissa Barrera was reportedly fired from her lead role as Sam Carpenter over comments she made about Israel’s war with Hamas on social media.

Jenna Ortega, who played her sister, Tara, walked off the project soon after, and after receiving huge amounts of online abuse, Landon also stepped away from the project.

Despite the horrific abuse he endured, the director has revealed that Drop was a ‘cathartic’ experience for him that helped him channel what he went through.

Addressing the controversy that led to his departure from Scream 7 he told Metro: ‘I’ve said to people that the movie met the moment for me. I was feeling a lot of things about that [situation], and I really related to Violet’s predicament.’

‘You know, really feeling like you’ve got this person who is attacking you, and you can’t, you can’t see them, you can’t really speak directly to them.

‘And that was certainly something that I was feeling at the time.

‘So this was a really cathartic way to deal with some of that stuff.’

Speaking to Vanity Fair, he detailed the extent of the online abuse and revealed it was why he eventually stepped away from directing the film.

‘People were threatening to kill me and my family, to the point where the FBI was getting involved,’ he said. ‘I got messages saying, “I’m going to find your kids, and I’m going to kill them because you support child murder.”

Landon and his husband of nine years, Cody Morris, have two sons aged five and eight.

‘The head of security at various studios and the FBI had to examine the threats. It was highly aggressive and really scary.’

The script was written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach. Landon revealed to Metro that he joined the project after being completely hooked by the high-octane story.

‘I chewed my fingernails off reading the script. I loved the concept, I loved the characters, I loved the opportunity. I felt like it was a sort of modern Hitchcock kind of movie. And I loved the themes.’

The film tackles themes of domestic violence and abuse, with Violet learning to overcome a horrific past relationship where she and her son were held at gunpoint. Landon explained he felt films are a good vehicle to deliver important messages.

‘It’s a really difficult subject to talk about and to touch on in a film but also something that’s really close to me. I’ve had people very dear to me go through similar situations, and so I really wanted to approach it from a place of honesty.

‘And to push this message that so many survivors of domestic abuse are the most resilient people on Earth, and there is hope, and that’s really what the message of the movie ultimately is.’

He added: ‘I think it’s a great message for audience members, it’s a good way to talk about the subject.’

The Happy Death Day director explained that while he always aims to make films that are entertaining, powerful messages are often at the heart of the narrative.

‘I’m always trying to, like, Trojan horse, kind of heavy themes, but then they’re disguised in very entertaining movies. For me, that’s the best way to reach the biggest group of people as possible.’

The film focuses on the weaponisation of technology to cause harm, something that has been highlighted in other popular films and TV shows, and is only causes more anxiety as technology progresses.

‘I think Black Mirror is a show that’s really spoken to our collective cultural anxiety over technology.

‘I think we all feel it, and we all have these experiences where this thing that was designed for our convenience can still be used against us. And I think it’s a really relatable thing.

‘It doesn’t matter what the technology is, the threat is never the technology. The threat is people.

‘There’s always going to be a bad person who’s going to use that to harm someone else, or to use it to their advantage. And I think that’s what’s ultimately really scary to me, is that there are just really scary people out there who want to use this stuff to do bad things.’

Landon added that of course, Apple did not want them using AirDrop in this film, so they invented an app, ‘Digidrop,’ for the movie.

‘We had to create our own type of app and technology because it’s proprietary. A lot of these companies, they don’t want their product being used for nefarious purposes.’

He added that this was a source of anxiety for fears that fans wouldn’t understand the tech.

‘I was really nervous about that at the beginning, and then once we started showing the movie to people, they totally got it.’

Horror films have been a relatively safe bet for performing well at the box office, and Landon predicts that people are ready to ditch sequels and invest in original stories – and a good 90s-style thriller.

‘Right now we’re in this phase where it’s like everything is sort of IP-driven, or sequel or remake, and so it’s tough for an original movie.

‘Horror movies, luckily, have had a pretty good run theatrically, but I think thrillers kind of went out of fashion.

‘I kept telling everybody that I feel like the 90s thriller is coming back, and I think it needs to come back. That was certainly something that also inspired this movie.’

He added that he hopes the film is just the start of a resurgence of fun thrillers – something that he believes audiences are ‘jonesing for’.

‘With Drop, I’m really hoping that we’re at the front of a sort of thriller phase for cinemas. That would be amazing, because I do think people are jonesing for something that feels different.’

Drop is playing in cinemas now.

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