Episode 9 of “Dickinson” is now streaming on Apple TV+ and Emisue stans everywhere are probably still trying to catch their breath. The ending featured the most intimate moment yet for the couple, and yes, series stars Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Hunt loved it just as much as fans did.
After visiting her own personal inferno last week, Emily Dickinson (Steinfeld) knows exactly what she wants. So, she marches over to Sue’s (Hunt) house to get it. Unfortunately, they can’t hop right into bed, since Austin (Adrian Blake Enscoe) is throwing a going away party for George (Samuel Farnsworth), who’s off to war. But, by the end of the night, Emily and Sue are tangled beneath the sheets, and as madly in love as ever.
Looking back on the moment ahead of the episode, Hunt couldn’t help but giggle, knowing that fans were in for such a spicy moment.
“It was a spicy, spicy day of shooting!” Hunt told TheWrap in November. “Our director on that episode was just so amazing with us. And there were long conversations that were had before we came to shooting about what we wanted the scene to be and that we wanted it to be the spiciest of all the Emily and Sue scenes and also the tenderest. And that’s what I love so much about their arc, is it just gets tenderer and tenderer as the series goes on. It’s like a wonderful, slow cooked roast.”
Hailee Steinfeld wholeheartedly agreed, noting that the more intimate moments between Emily and Sue have always been dear to her.
“It’s really been so special anytime Ella and I have had the opportunity to play through that type of scene, if you will,” Steinfeld told TheWrap on Thursday. “Because, especially at this point, we have such an understanding of each other, and these characters, and how we want these characters portrayed. It’s been so incredible to have two seasons out to see how and what fans react to exactly, what they feel most connected to, especially with these two characters. And [this moment] was absolutely beautiful and wonderful and done so tastefully, which is always so appreciated.”
That said, most actors will tell you that filming sex scenes are almost always not sexy at all. And in the case of “Dickinson,” that was very much true. While Steinfeld admitted an intimate scene like that can certainly be “weird and awkward,” for her and Ella Hunt it was still pretty fun.
“It’s the two of us and we’re like two of the — I mean, you put us in a room together and it’s like we forget that we’re working and we need to stay focused and get to an end result here,” Steinfeld noted. “So we have a lot of fun together and this was a particularly fun moment. And it was sort of our last, dare I say? So we really soaked up every every moment that we could have.”
By Hunt’s memory, there was a whole lot of time to soak up. Because, in this particular sex scene, the reality of shooting it meant a lot of very specific takes. And the specificity of those shots made it distinctly un-sexy.
“It’s like, me kissing up Hailee’s arm for like, three seconds and then we call cut,” Hunt explained. “There’s a moment where Hailee’s like, tracing my lips with her finger, and the reality of that was a camera like, straight up in my face, Hailee’s arm reaching across the camera, and me like, ‘are we done? Are we done?’ and her finger just there, because we’re going slow mo as well. So she’s really, really slow.”
Hunt continued “It’s the least sexy thing I’ve ever done in my life. And Laura [Terruso, the episode’s director] is like, behind the camera whispering to Hailee ‘Now Hailee, just arch your back. Arch it, just a little.’ And Hailee’s like, ‘I’m lying, my hand is across the — this is not conducive to back arching!’ There’s nothing sexy about shooting. What is a very, I think spicy scene.”
According to Steinfeld, Hunt’s recollection — while hilarious — was spot on.
“Oh my god, yeah! No listen, that absolutely — she has a better memory than I do. That was absolutely the case,” Steinfeld said with a laugh. “Yeah, the cameras were so close and our director was like, not far away. And yeah, it was just — you know, any time any direction is sort of thrown at you in the moment and in a quiet moment, in a sensual moment, it can be a bit, I don’t know, distracting or could throw you off. But yeah, that was definitely — and we were already like in an awkward enough position that like, you didn’t have much…room to experiment? But yeah.”
Episode 9 of “Dickinson” is now streaming on Apple TV+.