When it comes to looking back at Keira Knightley's best movies so far, it’s tough to top the sexual tension the actress created with James McAvoy in 2007’s Atonement. The movie based on the novel by Ian McEwan had Knightley playing the eldest daughter in a wealthy family, who falls for the son of her family housekeeper. Now, over 15 years later, we’re still talking about the steamy library sex scene they shared, and so is the actress.
While promoting her new series, Black Doves, which is getting marvelous reviews and is currently streaming with a Netflix subscription, Keira Knightley mentioned the famed scene that had her getting hot and heavy with McAvoy’s Robbie Turner in a silk emerald green dress. She said while chatting with The Times:
The most famous sex scene that I’ve done, and the one that worked the best, was in Atonement. That was brilliant because it was storyboarded.
A lot has seemingly changed when it comes to the making of sex scenes in Hollywood movies. Lately, the use of intimacy coordinators is a regular occurrence on movies and TV shows to make sure the actors are comfortable when it comes to filming sex and nudity.
Knightley called her scene with McAvoy on Atonement her most famous and “best” sex scene because there was a lot of intention that was put into it behind the scenes. Per her words, it sounds like every frame of the scene directed by Joe Wright was shot with intention. As a result, it’s one of those modern classic sex scenes. Check it out:
During Knightley’s interview with The Times, she started off the conversation by talking about how she was spending her first week in London on her own since becoming a mother. She shared that she enjoyed sightseeing and doing things “just for me”. The rare occurrence also awarded her time to catch up on the new series, Rivals, starring David Tennant. She said the “bonking is extraordinary” before sharing her overall thoughts on sex scenes today. As she continued:
It’s really upped. There’s a lot of bottoms. It’s amazing. And, actually, female nudity has gone down quite a lot, which is interesting.
Knightley pointed out that male nudity is a lot more prevalent than it used to be in the world of movies and TV shows. That, plus female nudity has actually gone down. According to a 2024 study published by The Economist (via The Independent), findings showed that sex and nudity as a whole in the 250 biggest films of each year has gone down by almost 40% since 2000. That being said, the study noted the sex scenes that do make it to the movies tend to be more graphic than movies from the 20th century.
While sex scenes in the past seemed to be inserted in films willy-nilly, apparently the trend has to do with the use of intimacy coordinators and a focus on sex scenes being “in service of the character and storytelling.” The topic of sex scenes has definitely shifted from Knightley’s standpoint since the time she became famous in her 20s.
