Queen of the Intimate Sex Scene: Gina Prince-Bythewood with Sasheer Zamata

Crowning the Queen of the Intimate Sex Scene: Gina Prince-Bythewood featuring Sasheer Zamata

Show notes - https://bit.ly/2FIgSdC

This week, Meg guides us through some of her favorite sex scenes from the last 20 years and shouts-out the filmmakers behind them. Even though the characters and stories are diverse in these flicks, we end up realizing they have much more in common than we initially noticed. The common denominator among the filmmakers: taking the time to research and rewrite when putting together a movie that features real intimacy and onscreen character development.

The Movies

Love and Basketball (2000)

At the top of the list is writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood, whom we crown “Queen of the Intimate Sex Scene.” We dig into the groundbreaking, boundary-pushing bedroom scenes in her films Love and Basketball and Beyond the Lights. Love and Basketball follows Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps), childhood besties whose undying love for basketball causes their own love to bloom. 

Beyond the Lights (2014)

In Beyond the Lights, Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Noni, a Rihanna-adjacent pop star who is saved by Kaz (pre-#MeToo Nate Parker), an earnest cop who couldn’t be farther from her world and, of course, they fall in love.

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Then Meg and Beandrea take a closer look at the sex scenes in If Beale Street Could Talk from Academy Award-winner Barry Jenkins, who directed and wrote the pic. Here’s another set of childhood friends whose love matures as they get older. Fonny (Stephan James) and Tish (Kiki Layne) are goals!

Lingua Franca (2020)

Then we take up the auteur film Lingua Franca from indie writer-director-star Isabel Sandoval. Sandoval plays an undocumented trans woman who works as a live-in caretaker for an elderly woman (Lynn Cohen - RIP legend!) and gets involved with her grandson. We love that this movie is about a character who is a trans woman (and is played by a trans woman who also made the movie) and, most importantly, that the story isn’t about gender transition. Trans folks contain multitudes, people! 

Atonement (2008)

And last, but definitely not least: the BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning film Atonement, directed by Joe Wright with a screenplay from Christopher Hampton. Meg swoons over the subtleties of the acting performances, the direction, and of course, that stunning green gown. (Also: Beandrea realizes that Saoirse Ronan has been acting since she was a wee little one. Check out CherryPicks’ tribute to Saoirse here!)

The Interview

Sasheer Zamata in WOKE. Courtesy of Hulu.

For our interview this week, we chat with the delightful Sasheer Zamata who appears in the Hulu series Woke. We dig into what it was like playing a leading lady for the first time in the Stella Meghie indie film The Weekend (2018), what it was like doing bedroom scenes, and just how amazing “WAP” (and Cardi B’s insta) are. She also reminds us that the 1995 film Waiting To Exhale is one to keep coming back to again and again.

Credits

CherryPop is presented by CherryPicks.

Our hosts are Beandrea July (Twitter @beandreadotcom) and Meg McCarthy (IG megjomccarthy).

The show is recorded, produced and mixed by Beandrea July.

Our executive producers are Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes.

Our music is by Jordan Balagot. (Soundcloud jordanbla)

Special thanks to the whole team at CherryPicks.

Show notes

https://bit.ly/2FIgSdC

CherryPicks presents CherryPop: a podcast about women and sex onscreen. Tune in each week for our deep dives into some of the most compelling portrayals of female pleasure in film and television. Hosts Beandrea July and Meg McCarthy take listeners on a journey to celebrate feminine pleasure across a diverse and wide-ranging collection of films. Together we’ll look at how a great sex scene can not only create intimacy and reveal a character to us in a whole new way, but it can also help us make deeper connections in our own lives.

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!