Michael Douglas Describes Filming Sex Scenes Before Intimacy Coordinators, Stressing Trust and Choreography

On a recent episode of "Happy, Sad, Confused," the podcast hosted by Josh Horowitz, Michael Douglas, now 82, described how he approached filming sex scenes in the years before intimacy coordinators became a standard presence on movie sets. His answer was less about passion than about process.

"There's an art to sex scenes in films," Douglas said, pointing to technical problems such as shadowing a partner when you are on top. The central ingredient, he said, is trust. As long as his co-star trusted him, and he trusted her, he likened the work to a dance in which he was the one leading.

He explained that the work was talked through slowly and in advance. Actors would narrate each movement aloud, he said, asking whether it was all right to touch a body part, waiting for a yes, and then confirming the action. Douglas compared the method to choreographing a fight scene. You begin very slowly, he said, and then the camera rolls, which is what makes it look as though it is really happening.

Douglas also said he paid attention to the comfort of the women he worked with, particularly because they were often surrounded by a mostly male crew. That was especially true in those days, he said, and he wanted to make sure they were as comfortable as possible.

In the same conversation he turned to a broader philosophy of acting. He has always seen a role as one small part of the whole, he said, which means an actor needs the best performers available around him. "I'd rather be good in a little movie than lousy in a big part," he added.

The interview comes alongside his memoir, "One Helluva Ride," in which Douglas writes about the hardest parts of his life. He covers his volatile relationship with his late father, Kirk Douglas, his son Cameron's addiction and imprisonment, and his own Stage 4 cancer diagnosis, which forced him to confront his mortality.

The book also recounts romantic entanglements, and one of them is now contested. Douglas writes that while filming "Adam at 6 A.M." early in his career, his relationship with co-star Lee Purcell changed and they became lovers. He says it was complicated because she was married, so they hid it from the cast, crew, townspeople where they were shooting, and her husband. He describes it as a passionate affair that lasted through filming.

Purcell disputes that version. In a statement to Fox News Digital, she said the story came as a complete surprise and that she has fond memories of Douglas, but that their recollections differ. She said she remembers the search for his character, Adam, happening after she had already been hired by Steve McQueen for the role of Jerri Jo. She also said the two had a strictly professional relationship during filming, and that a personal one came much later.

Douglas also writes that during "Romancing the Stone" he had an affair with Diane Thomas, the screenwriter of the film. He says that he and his first wife, Diandra, were both involved in extramarital relationships as their marriage deteriorated. No response to that account appears in the reporting. Whether others named in the memoir answer publicly is the thing to watch.