Netflix 'Sex/Life' Season 2 star Sarah Shahi on creating the steamy, erotic sex scenes
"The sex scenes are coming from the place of story," Sarah Shahi says
With the release of Season 2 of the Netflix series Sex/Life, the show's star Sarah Shahi nails down what makes the steamy sex scenes in the series unique, many of which went viral when Season 1 was released.
“Pleasure and sensuality are some of the themes of the show, so I feel like, in terms of [Billie and all the characters], the sex scenes are coming from the place of story,” Shahi told Yahoo Canada “They're not purely just on their own and I think the emphasis is really placed on the emotional component of the scene.”
“So with our intimacy coordinator, the things that we discussed, it's not necessarily just the movements of it, but also the breath and what kind of breath. Is it a heavy fast thing? Is it slow? Is it almost silent? … I thought it was just an extension of the storyline and we'll see … if people will think the same or not about the next season.”
What is 'Sex/Life' Season 2 about?
In Season 2 of Sex/Life, still filmed around Toronto, we pick up where we left off at the end of the first season, when Billie (Shahi) rushed to see her ex Brad (Adam Demos), after deciding she did want to give their relationship a shot.
“One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is who to spend your life with,” Billie says in a voiceover at the beginning of the first episode of Season 2.
This isn't the fairytale romance you may anticipate. Billie and Brad don't actually start off the season together. Despite Billie's rush for love, Brad is in a relationship with a model, and tells Billie she's "too late."
Billie gets her own apartment in the city, separated from her husband Cooper (Mike Vogel), alternating time in their Connecticut home with their kids.
That being said, our leading woman isn't single for long. Billie quickly meets restauranteur Majid (Darius Homayoun), but Brad (Adam Demos) is never too far away.
“It was nice to see the things that he was going through in Season 1 sort of play out, and he had resolved a lot of things,” Demos said. “Also, there was this added layer of fear and vulnerability of trying to now call this your life, and then also wanting that.”
“Now there's a different type of guilt that he's facing and conflict that he wasn't ready for.”
Cooper continues to hook up with his boss Francesca (Li Jun Li) and it's anything but straightforward. It is very, very messy. Cooper's life continues to unravel more and more since his split from Billie.
The man that could 'ruin' Sasha's professional life
For Season 2, there is also significantly more focus on Margaret Odette's character Sasha. She's thriving in her professional life but when a love interest from her past shows up, it derails her plans.
“The exciting thing was the challenge,” Odette said. “We introduced Sasha in Season 1 as this powerful, fun, fierce, take no prisoners kind of person, and while she has certainly levelled up in her business pursuits, in Season 2 all of a sudden all this … personal stuff starts creeping in.”
“She's got to deal with this man that completely took her off her centre and that she really, really loves, and that has the potential to threaten and ruin this professional life she's built for herself. So it was just a really fun journey through the emotional tornado that ensued from her trying to really navigate whether or not she could have both of these things that she was so passionate about, but that seemingly didn't align.”
Odette highlighted that her arc, in particular, really speaks to that human desire to seemingly have it all.
“I think that's life. Right?” Odette said. “You want these things that don't always work together, how do I make them work? And so it was fun to explore that. How do I make this work for Sasha this season?”
