Kirsten Dunst Explains Why Female Directors Make Better Sex Scenes

Sofia Coppola's upcoming period drama, The Beguiled, a remake of a 1971 film, tells the story of a wounded Civil War soldier (Colin Farrell), who is taken in by an all-girls boarding school in Virginia.

Each of the women at the boarding school—including those played by Kirsten DunstNicole Kidman and Elle Fanning—starts to fall in love with the soldier and tries to seduce him.

And apparently, they succeed. Indeed, the trailer features a rather rough sex scene between Dunst and Farrell.

It's intense—and according to Dunst, not so much fun to film.

"I don't like it, I don't like it," Dunst told E! News of filming the sex scene. "To be honest, I'm like, 'Let's get this over with as fast as possible.'"

That being said, Dunst explained that this particular sex scene still wasn't as bad as some she's filmed in the past for one big reason: the movie's female director, Sofia Coppola.

Dunst explained that male directors usually want "to shoot it from every angle," while Coppola, with whom Dunst has worked previously (on The Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette), is always much quicker about getting through the scene's inherent awkwardness.

"Sofia's like, 'We're going to get this done quick, we're just gonna shoot it here, we'll do three takes, be done,'" said Dunst.

Farrell, Dunst's scene partner, agreed that having a woman at the helm for these types of scenes makes filming better.

"It's harder for women," he said. "And women have in the history of cinema been more exploited, of course, through the means of sexuality, by men than men have. So it's situations like that, any love scenes that I've been a party to over the years, you just [do] whatever your female dance partner needs."

Added Farrell, "I really think a woman should be the boss completely in those scenes. Whatever she needs to make her comfortable and allow her to have the freedom to do the job she needs to do."

Dunst and Farrell aren't the only actors who feel this way.

In an interview with Flavorwireactor/writer/director/producer Illeana Douglas said that when asked, "What's it like to work with a male director versus a female director?" she always replies, "Well, the female directors shoot better sex scenes.”

Explained Douglas:

"You’re going to see a lot of sex scenes on the show and they’re all shot by women—and they’re really, really sexy. There’s usually a little bit more nudity, I’ve noticed, in a female-directed sex scene than a male-directed sex scene. I don’t want to get graphic, but there’s totally a difference in what the guy will focus on and what a woman will focus on."

As a movie-goer, I agree that you can tell the difference between sex scenes shot by a man versus a woman.

Take Fifty Shades Darker, which I saw this weekend. While many of us will agree that it is equally as bad and decidedly unsexy as the first film in the series, Fifty Shades of Grey (2015), there is a distinct difference in each film's sex scenes.

For while Fifty Shades of Darker, directed by James Foley, a man, does a pretty good job of showing that women enjoy sex, you definitely feel as though its sex scenes were filmed for men—and that's despite the fact that these films were created essentially for women.

In Fifty Shades of Grey, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, a woman, you just don't feel that male gaze.

Again, I have to stress, the sex scenes in both films are not at all sexy but still, that difference in viewpoint is huge—and it's appreciated at least by this female film fan.

Let's hope Hollywood leans into this and allows more women to take the helm of even more (sexy) movies.

The Beguiled hits theaters on June 30.