40 Most Awkward Sex Scenes

A Fish Called Wanda (1998)

The Sex Scene: Smell fetish! Otto (Kevin Kline) and Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) forget their problems, revelling in a night of passion.

That includes Otto slipping off Wanda's boot and inhaling it like he's having trouble breathing…

Most Awkward Moment: Otto goes cross-eyed as he reaches that happy place…

Bad Santa (2003)

The Sex Scene : Sex in a Santa suit! Sex addict and shopping mall Santa Claus Willie T. Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) lives for depravity, which is why he ends up having sex with bartender Sue (Lauren Graham), who just so happens to have a Santa fetish.

Most Awkward Moment:
The duo do it in a shop changing room, where their grunts of pleasure don't exactly go unnoticed.

Office Space (1999)

The Sex Scene: Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) has a nightmare that his boss Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) is having sex with his lover Joanna (Jennifer Aniston).

Most Awkward Moment: The entire thing's pretty cringe worthy, especially as Lumbergh is talking to Peter while having his way with Joanna.

And sipping from his mug of coffee. Shudder.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)

The Sex Scene: Ace (Jim Carrey) finally gets between the sheets with publicist Melissa Robinson (Courteney Cox) for a night of passionate love-making.

Most Awkward Moment: Well, Ace loves his animals. Which means there are loads in the bedroom, just kind of watching while Ace and Melissa do their stuff.

Mood-killers.

Splice (2009)

The Sex Scene: Genetic engineer Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) tracks alien Dren (Delphine Chanéac) down at a barn, where she promptly seduces him and the two have their very own weird kind of sex.

There are wings involved.

Most Awkward Moment:
Well, apart from the fact that Dren's an alien whom Clive raised from childhood, Clive's other half Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) also catches him in the act.

Now that really is awkward.

Species (1995)

The Sex Scene: Nerdy anthropologist Dr. Stephen Arden (Alfred Molina) goes back to the hotel room of a beautiful brunette, unaware that he's about to sleep with alien Sil (Natasha Henstridge).

Most Awkward Moment: Moments after they've had sex, Sil says she can already feel the baby growing in her belly.

No happy ending for Dr Arden, then…

Demolition Man (1993)

The Sex Scene: Detective Sergeant John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) thinks he's the luckiest man on Earth when Lieutenant Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) invites him to have set with her…

Most Awkward Moment:
…except in the year 2023, people don't have sex by touching each other anymore (ew, diseases).

Instead, they put on special suits and experience it through virtual reality. Bummer.

Last Tango In Paris (1972)

The Sex Scene: Hotelier Paul (Marlon Brando) does the nasty with young, innocent Parisian Jeanne (Maria Schneider).

And when we say 'nasty', we really do mean it.

Most Awkward Moment:
Paul grabs the butter and uses it for, well. Gosh, we're blushing here…

Let's just say they needed something slippery, and the butter was just sort of there, demanding to be part of the action…

The Counsellor (2013)

The Sex Scene: Reiner (Javier Bardem) recalls the time that his cat-loving girl-fiend Malkina (Cameron Diaz) stopped their car in order to have sex.

Not with Reiner, but with the car…

Most Awkward Moment: Malina clambers onto the auto's windscreen, spreads her legs and starts rubbing herself against the glass.

Meanwhile, Reiner looks on, disbelieving. Sort of like the audience.

Tiny Furniture (2010)

The Sex Scene: Aura (Lena Dunham) hooks up with a guy from work.

But with nowhere for them to go (he has a girlfriend, she lives with her mum), they're forced to find something rather, um, unconventional to do the nasty.

Most Awkward Moment:
The duo ends up in a concrete construction pipe, which is surely the LEAST sexy place to have a sexy encounter.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.