Sex scenes have always been woven into Hollywood films to help reflect the lives of a film’s characters–for better or worse. Throughout the industry’s history, intimate-oriented scenes have grown and developed as a sort of mirror to parts of society. With this personal element of storytelling fluctuating constantly, many have weighed in, including Rob Lowe. Lowe shares his feelings about current media and how performers are seen as courageous, while previously, it was expected, and it’s an understandable perspective.
As Lowe and Moore try to forge a Brat Pack reunion ahead while he continues to celebrate old friends' movie achievements, he’s been busy with 9-1-1 Lone Star (Season 5 just finished up on our 2025 TV schedule) and hosting Literally! With Rob Lowe. His episode with Kristin Davis can be found via the podcast’s YouTube page, and while they reminisce about past joint projects, Davis’ new podcast, among other topics, their conversation on sex scenes in Hollywood stood out.
The Tommy Boy actor, along with his guest, weighed in on how the expectations of having more intimate scenes in Hollywood have changed vastly. He highlighted how starkly different the landscape and mentality are, noting people call stars ‘so brave,’ today when they participate in a sex scene, if there even is one. The Parks and Rec alum then stated how, in the past, performers could reference a certain part of the script to figure out whether or not they should prepare for a bedroom scene, he shared:
They’re like, ‘It’s so brave. She’s so brave.' She’s brave because she has a sex scene? Like, that’s brave now, and in our day, it was required. There was the page 73 rule. Did you know what the page 73 rule [was]? … Back in the day the sex scene was always on page 73. Like, you’d get a script and were like, ‘Oh my, god, how gratuitous. Am I going to have to be naked in this?’ And you didn’t have to read the whole script. You just went to page 73, because that mid-second act… What do you do in the mid-second act, which is notoriously the toughest sledding in storytelling? They Blue Lagoon it. … But now, it’s so brave. So brave.
There’s no doubt about how much Hollywood shifts every handful of decades, especially revolving around expectations of more personally revealing elements. Between general trends, the current interest of audiences and the regularity of intimacy coordinators on sets, there’s certainly no regular “page 73,” anymore. It is interesting to pull back and realize what Lowe is bringing to this conversation and how societal norms and expectations have affected this part of movie making.
The pair make an interesting point, and it seems like there could be a more balanced middle ground moving forward. One that remains safe and fair to all, of course. The St. Elmo’s Fire actor then expanded on that idea by touching on a more universal thought regarding it all, stating that opportunity and disruption are what helps make change. He shared:
I always feel, like, out of chaos comes opportunity. My attitude is always you make the most of it [and] disruption is actually a great time to build new things. If you can be one of the nimble ones, if you can be one of the forward-thinking ones and if you can be one of the fearless ones and not entrenched and not trying to recreate yesterday but try to imagine tomorrow, it’s your time.
This sentiment of The Outsiders actor, is after all, what brought us to the current state of television and movies. It seems like there’s always room to grow and learn. And if Lowe's lessons in comedy from Mike Myers and Dana Carvey a la Wayne’s World is any small shred of an indicator of growth that’s possible in Hollywood, I’m interested to see how the state of sex scenes change from here.
With Rob Lowe’s thoughts on the more intimate inner working parts of media out there, hopefully his points shed light on the fuller conversation.
If you’d like to watch Rob Lowe in 9-1-1 Lone Star you can stream it with a Hulu subscription. Let’s just be glad that the Fox show didn’t use Lowe's nixed 9-1-1 finale pitch.
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