Softcore movies question
 

Are the sex scenes for real or is it just acting?

The word softcore usually means no. I often wondered how the man didn't get 'excited' in sex scenes(simulated) when a beautiful actress took her clothes off or was filmed in various scenes and states of undress. I suppose he must be a bloody good actor but imagine the scene - beautiful strips off wearing not a lot or naked, gets into bed with said man and they have to 'perform' - ignoring all the others in the room that are around them, like the sound man, cameraman, director etc. The director has already gone through the scene with them and all they are doing is using his direction to act to - the mere fact you think they might be real shows how good he is and they are. :)

I would say most are "acting". The line between softcore and hardcore is pretty absolute. Actors tend to stay on one side or the other. Non hardcore actors don't want to be branded as "porn stars". They usually have greater asprations to get into Hollywood.

It also depends on what kind of film your talking about? Obviously mainstream films are softcore. Going through the motions and not showing anything really. Actors usually note how uncomfortable and awkward it is to do sex scenes and thus don't get turned on. (Though I think a few male actors have gotten hard by accident. But they are usually under the sheets)

There are hardcore films edited down to softcore. So yeah, it was real sex, but they took out the "X" rated stuff.

There's the softcore film business. Many seen on late night cable channels. It is clearly not their attempt to film hardcore scenes, though they sometimes try to push the envelope. But if they go to far it limits where they can sell broadcast or rental rights.

There are some softcore actors and actresses who have claimed that there were times when they would go all the way when they had their face buried in someones crotch. Some of those actresses have claimed so over at the Softcore Review site. They have a section in their forums called the "extra mile".

Generally, the male actors will wear an appliance called a sock to cover their genitals. I've been pretty skeptical of "real" sex in softcore films. Monique Parent has categorically stated she never did it, but that doesn't stop some fans producing frames from her movies and claiming she did.

There's also the real posibility that the actress may loathe her love interest. Lauren Hayes hated her on-screen lover in "The Great Bikini Off-Road Adventure".

There is no absolute answer. When I worked in the business, from 1973 to 1982, there was a spectrum of films, from the solo strip films (think Virginia Bell) all the way to "Deep Throat" and everything between. That spectrum was the result of the legal situation. In the 1960s a number of obscenity cases had been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court with language which spoke of "community standards", meaning that different places might have different standards. By 1973 matters were further confused by a case called "Redrup" which had held that if a majority of the SCOTUS concluded that a film was not obscene, the case would be dismissed.

As a practical matter that meant that a lot of film would be shot; post-production would edit a softcore version, a "hard softcore" version, and a straight hardcore version. Most of these were seven or eight-minute "loops". They would then be distributed in their various "communities". The version that played on 42nd Street in Manhattan was harder than the version that played on Long Island.

Given the proliferation of video porn, things may be different now; I don't know.

In the case of a Hollywood type production, with probably at least 20 people on the set, director, camera people, continuity, gaffers, lighting techs, sound techs, etc., I would think that no matter how "hot" the actress might be, all of that, plus the many retakes and reshoots, would be deflating.

I have read that male actors would sometimes take care of themselves (i.e. jack off) before the scene which would help.

You forgot that group of workers known as "fluffers". The book The Other Hollywood has a chapter devoted to how a fluffer named Vicky was "deflating" an actor in a softcore movie and introduced the production crew to the technique known as deep throat.