Why Josh O'Connor Calls Sex Scenes "Least Sexy Thing" After Challengers With Zendaya and Mike Faist

Josh O’Connor thinks filming a sex scene for a movie is royally unsexy.

The British actor recently opened up about how filming racy scenes, like the almost-threesome he had with costars Zendaya and Mike Faist in Challengers, are actually pretty weird.

“A sex scene is a very strange thing,” Josh told Vanity Fair in an interview published Nov. 13. “It’s the least sexy thing in the world. You can ask Mike Faist and Zendaya about that”

The 34-year-old—who also portrayed the now-King Charles III on Netflix’s The Crown when he was Prince of Wales—went on to share why performing in intimate scenes isn’t actually all that steamy.

“It might look sexy onscreen, but in reality, it’s the same as a fight sequence,” he continued. “A bit of action or stunt, or a dance. It’s a very choreographed, rehearsed thing, and you’re surrounded in a room full of people—someone’s holding a boom microphone and camera and lights.”

As for what Josh thinks is more difficult than portraying sexy moments onscreen? That would be capturing raw human emotion.

“Being vulnerable and intimate with another actor is more revealing, and scarier,” he said. “You’re often having to reach for something inside you that sometimes is blocked away or hidden, whatever it is, and that can be intimidating.”

But while the intimate scenes may be hard to film, Josh also has plenty of fun in the light-hearted flirty moments, including the churro scene in Challengers that fans believe was full of sexual tension between Josh and Mike’s character.

"I hadn’t eaten anything that day,” Josh said during an April interview with Capital FM. “So I was starving, and tasted my first churro—and churros are extraordinary. So, I ate my one and then I ate [Mike's]."

And, according to Zendaya, that delicious shot wasn’t planned ahead of time.

"The churro wasn't scripted,” she told the radio station. “The churro was something you guys kinda found with [director Luca Guadagnino]."