WHILE Joanna Page is best known for her lead role in Gavin & Stacey – many fans will also recall her memorable sex scenes in Love Actually too.
The Welsh actress, 49, opened up about filming the X-rated moments and shared the trick her actor husband James Thornton was offered to prevent him having an erection in his roles.
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Gavin and Stacey star Joanna Page has opened up how movie sets film sex scenes. Pictured with her actor husband James Thornton Credit: Getty
Joanna shared what it was like filming sex scenes in Love Actually Credit: No Parental Guidance
Getting candid on Fabulous’ No Parental Guidance podcast, she revealed that James, 50 – known for his role as John Barton in Emmerdale – was given a pill that hindered any movement down below.
Joanna told hosts Louise Boyce and Hannah East: “He’s an actor, and he did a sex scene once and he has to lie down on it and he’s got to be completely naked.
“The medic – this is like years ago around about like 1999 or something, so things were different – came up to him on set and said to him, ‘look, I’ve got a tablet that you can take to make sure that there’s no action and nothing happens’.”
Joanna played the love interest of Martin Freeman in Love Actually – with the pair meeting while being body doubles for a sex film Credit: Alamy
Joanna spoke to hosts Louise Boyce and Hannah East on the No Parental Guidance podcast Credit: No Parental Guidance
She confirmed that her husband – who she’s been married to since 2003 and shares four kids with – declined the pill as he was “scared that it wouldn’t go back up.”
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Joanna, who starred opposite love interest Martin Freeman in Love Actually, confirmed that no actor has ever had an erection when she has shot raunchy scenes.
Fans will recall in the hit Christmas movie, the pair played “seemingly shy” Judy and John, who work as body doubles for a sex film production and develop romantic feelings for one another.
Joanna confirmed: “Nobody’s ever got anything.
Joanna said filming the last scenes of Gavin and Stacey were ‘horrific’ as she was involved with the show ‘all the way through’ her life Credit: BBC
The final episode of Gavin and Stacey aired in 2024 Credit: PA
“I’ve had to do two things where I’ve had to do, like full on sex scenes and nobody got an erection or anything because it’s too terrifying.”
Speaking about the crew members who were on set for her Love Actually sex scenes, Joanna revealed: “So you’ve got the rest of the cast, but then I think we had Richard and I think you might have had the person who was doing the camera.
“And then a producer there or, you know, just like one other person.
“You’ll always have hair and makeup in there, and it’s always loads of girls and you’ll always have wardrobe in there with you as well, because as soon as they go, cut, the wardrobe girls would come in and they’d put a dressing gown around you straight away.”
Joanna and James, and three of their four kids Credit: Getty
Joanna opened up about how sex scenes are shot for TV and movies Credit: PA
She confirmed there were no intimacy coordinators, like they now have on spicy shows such as Bridgerton, because “this was about 2000.”
Opening up about another sex scene she filmed for the 2001 horror film From Hell, Joanna shared how she was given a “Hollywood makeover” ready for her nude moment.
She explained: “I was in hair and makeup for hours. They tonged all of my hair. Then I went in and I had a whole spray tan.
“Then they had a tiny little G-string that I had to put on. They sprayed me down with all this glycerin, I mean, I looked incredible.
“I thought, ‘imagine you’re riding a horse, okay? You’re just riding a horse.’”
When Louise and Hannah queried what happens if you are on your period during a sex scene, Joanna explained that either you “have to carry on taking your pill, or you have the thing that the doctor gives you where you don’t bleed”, or you should “shove a massive tampon up, cut the cord off and hope for the best.”
Joanna confirmed that, despite Love Actually being a cult Christmas classic, her kids haven’t seen her X-rated scenes.
She shared: “My kids are now asking to watch Love Actually because they’ve heard about it and they kind of know the story in it as well.
“They know that mummy is nude in it and that I act out these things.
“So they haven’t seen any of it because the eldest one is 13, but it was I think it was last year that I said yes, okay, you can sit down and watch Love Actually, mummy is gonna have to fast forward through some bits.”
Arguably Joanna’s most well-known role was in Gavin and Stacey, which was created and written by James Corden and Ruth Jones, who also starred in it as Smithy and Nessa.
The final episode of the long-running series aired on Christmas Day 2024, with 19.1 million viewers tuning in for the last instalment.
Joanna claimed filming the final scenes was “horrific.”
She shared: “Oh my God, I don’t know how I got through it, because the show has been with me all the way through my life, and I feel so much for everybody who was in it.
“I mean, I started doing it when I was 29, and then we actually finished it when I was 48, and so it’s been a huge, huge part of my life.
“When it got to the finale, oh, God, it was awful. It was awful. I’ve never really been anywhere where I’ve had such a lack of control over myself.”
Joanna recalled being in her trailer and with Ruth on one side and Julia Davis [who played Dawn Sutcliffe] on the other side.
She added: “As I was sobbing, I was like, you need to seriously pull yourself together now because we do have to work.
“I grieved for a while, and then by the time it came on TV, I was absolutely fine.”
Recently, Joanna and Mathew Horne [who played Gavin] revealed they are reunited for a brand new project – two years after the final episode aired.
The pair will be hosting a podcast together called Table For Four, which will be unveiled this Summer.
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