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Nicholas Galitzine wanted to make Mary & George’s gay sex scenes as "honest" as possible

5 March 2024, 14:36

Watch Nicholas Galitzine in the Mary & George trailer

By Sam Prance

In Mary & George, Nicholas Galitzine plays King James I's lover George Villiers.

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Nicholas Galitzine has opened up about filming the sex scenes in Mary & George and how they approached them with care.

Today (Mar 5), Mary & George debuted on Sky Atlantic. The historical drama is based on the real-life romance between King James I and his courtier George Villiers. It stars Tony Kuran as James, Nicholas Galitzine as George and Julianne Moore as George's mother Mary. From the gripping script to the brilliant acting, fans can't get enough of the historical drama.

However, it's the intimate scenes in particular that fans are truly living for. Now, Nicholas has revealed how they filmed those scenes in the show and why it was important for the cast and crew to make the gay sex scenes as "honest" as possible.

Nicholas Galitzine wanted to make Mary & George’s gay sex scenes as "honest" as possible. Picture: Doug Peters/EMPICS/Alamy Live News, Sky Atlantic

Speaking to Yahoo about the sex scenes, Nicholas confirmed that they had an intimacy coordinator. He also worked closely with the show's director. Nicholas said: "Oliver Hermanus, our wonderful director, and I spoke very early on about what we want the sex scenes to be, the purpose we wanted them to serve and how they'd be done."

Elsewhere, Nicholas revealed that his first scenes on set were actually sex scenes. He said: "Starting the project my first three scenes, I think, my first three scenes were all sex scenes. I immediately felt a level of comfort and confidence and actually excitement that this is George's currency, right?"

Explaining himself further, Nicholas said: "I felt like I was really getting to know George through those scenes in a way, because this is how he operated in the world and how he chose to dominate people often."

He added: "So it was actually quite exciting in a way."

Nicholas Galtizine as George Villiers in Mary & George. Picture: Sky Altantic / FlixPix / Alamy Stock Photo

Talking to Attitude about the gay sex scenes in particular, Nicholas said that Oliver, who is gay, was able to ensure that there was an authenticity to all the intimate scenes in the show. He said: "He had such a beautiful attention to detail. I really feel actually watching so many of those scenes, they’re so beautiful. They don’t feel salacious in any way."

Nicholas continued: "It’s all about honesty. We’re interested in an honest portrayal of this era, Jacobean England. Certainly, from my perspective, the relationship between George and King James, it was transactional at first it grew into something really, really beautiful. And I think that’s really reflected in the scenes, which is lovely."

As for Oliver, he told Attitude: "I wanted any queer person seeing those scenes to feel like it was authentic and naturalistic and real and didn’t feel fake. We spent a lot of time talking about sex on this process."

He also said: "Orgies are not easy to choreograph. I learned a lot about orgies on this job. That was an education."