All Props, No Process | Why “Fifty Shades of Grey” Gets BDSM Wrong

We’re kicking off the new year by finally stepping into the Red Room and immediately asking some hard questions.

In this episode, Ariel and Morgan break down the infamous first Red Room scene from Fifty Shades of Grey, a film that promised mainstream BDSM and delivered… confusion, questionable choreography, and music doing most of the emotional heavy lifting. 

New year, new structure. For 2026, they cut straight to the craft: power dynamics, consent, and why the scene ultimately falls flat.

They get into it all:

• Why the Red Room reads more like spectacle than negotiated intimacy
• How the film confuses dominance with control and intensity with compatibility
• How music, montage, and production design work overtime to create heat that isn’t really there
• What a more grounded, informed version of this scene could have looked like
• And why Christian Grey seems more turned on by interior design than intimacy

This episode isn’t about kink-shaming. It’s about unpacking why a movie that centered BDSM failed to show how consent, agency, and erotic tension actually function in practice. It’s part critique, part craft analysis, and part public service announcement for anyone who thinks mood lighting counts as communication.

Want to watch along? Our reaction covers 1:22:10–1:29:34. We cut around the clip, so it won’t sync perfectly, but you’ll absolutely get the point.

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Credits — Fifty Shades of Grey

Director: Sam Taylor-Johnson
Writer (Screenplay): Kelly Marcel
Writer (Novel): E. L. James
Producers: Michael De Luca; Dana Brunetti; E. L. James
Actors (featured): Dakota Johnson; Jamie Dornan
© 2015 Focus Features / Trigger Street Productions / Michael De Luca Productions. All rights reserved.

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Transcript

Ariel (00:00)
But in this moment, it just seems a little weird, particularly after putting her underwear directly into his

Morgan (00:07)
Why are you braiding her hair? Is this a sleepover?

Ariel (00:07)
He's braiding her hair.

This is the protocol in his household.

Morgan (00:11)
Got it. Okay.

reality shows have subtler music cues. This is ridiculous.

he has this huge elaborate setup, but all they show is minimal binding And they're like, he's crazy.

Ariel (00:25)
Which is maybe

Hi, I'm Ariel Leigh Cohen. And we're the hosts of Faking It with Ariel and Morgan.

Morgan (00:58)
Hey, I'm Morgan Smith.

We're two intimacy coordinators here to talk about the spicy scenes you see in film and TV.

Ariel (01:10)
Happy New Year, Morgan!

Morgan (01:15)
so excited.

Ariel (01:16)
I have my giant size matters cup that feels appropriate for today's adventure.

Morgan (01:16)
All right, so. ⁓

⁓ my god, that is the best cartoonishly large mug I've ever seen.

Ariel (01:30)
it's comically big. it is the size of my whole head when it comes

Morgan (01:33)
because size matters when it comes to coffee mugs.

This is our first episode of 2026 and with the new year, we're bringing changes to Faking It to give you more of the stuff you

diving straight into scene work with more depth and analysis. Instead of separate sections for Hot Off the Set and Position to Know, we're going to incorporate those anecdotes organically throughout the episode and we'll always change names or identifying details for privacy purposes.

And of course, we still have the spice scale. you have feedback about the pod, please email us at FakingItThePod@gmail.com

And today are reacting to 50 Shades of Grey.

Ariel (02:14)
Beautiful.

Yay! What a way to start off the year My absolute delight. for those of you who listened to our Twilight episode, y'all might know that I know a little bit about Twilight, so of course I know a little bit about 50 Shades of Grey.

I have seen all the films many, many times, I also did read all of the books out of curiosity and found them to be not my bag.

Morgan, what's your history with the film?

Morgan (02:48)
I've never watched any of these movies. I know. I've seen clips and I've heard tell terrible it is as a film, as a representation of BDSM. this isn't the Mr. Gray people wanted.

Ariel (03:05)
who did they want? don't actually know. Not him? Well, okay, I think he's fine. I saw him on a talk show at one point where he said that when he got the call that he got the job, he basically said cool and went back to sleep. that was his Yeah.

Morgan (03:06)
Just not him, I think.

Ariel (03:25)
My thesis for Fifty Shades of Grey is that Fifty Shades is less a romance and more a story about two people mistaking intensity for compatibility, and the Red Room functions as the point where the confusion becomes impossible to ignore.

perhaps in future episodes we'll go over the other movies in this franchise but for now we're just sticking with one.

in a general sense Christian Grey has something in his house called the red room, which is this red room dungeon of not gonna watch this part But it's my favorite part of the movie He says

my tastes are very singular. And then he brings her into the room. And just my favorite bit is this meme culture that developed as a reaction to it where it's like, my tastes are very singular. And he opens the door and it's like a ball pit with like a bunch of clowns

Morgan (04:17)
Ha ha ha!

Ariel (04:19)
or just like a lot of trains or let's get into some scene work, shall we?

Morgan (04:21)
Yeah.

Let's do it.

Ariel (04:29)
we will be watching Fifty Shades of Grey. Actors in the scene, we will have Dakota Johnson as Anastasia Steele or Anna Steele and Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey. It is based off of the Twilight fan fiction Master of the Universe and E.L. James, who wrote the now bestselling was writing under the pseudonym Snowqueens Icedragon.

was her pen name screen name, yes,

Morgan (04:52)
was her pen name.

Ariel (04:57)
Screenplay was written by Kelly Marcel and it was directed by Sam Taylor Johnson.

Did I say Tam Saylor Johnson? Directed by Sam Taylor Johnson. I did. Tam Saylor Johnson. Jam Mailer nonsense. All right,

Morgan (05:03)
If I'm wrong.

By Tam Saylor Johnson. Jam Saylor Nonson. ⁓

Ariel (05:18)
IC'd of course by no one because it came out in 2015. time code if you'd to follow along with us is going to be 1:22:10 to 1:29:34. Christian

Christian brings Anastasia into the Red Room for the first time after the relationship turns sexual. He shows her the room, explains what it's used for, and walks her through the rules and expectations of his BDSM lifestyle. They engage in their first structured encounter in the Anastasia's initial participation in that side of Christian's world. She also, for reference, has never done any kind of BDSM before.

and lost her virginity So she's quite inexperienced and he has gone on record saying that he has had 20 or 30 subs in his Yeah.

Morgan (06:09)
Wait, sorry. She

just lost her virginity is now to him.

Ariel (06:14)
To him. Yes.

To him. Yeah.

Morgan (06:18)
And now he's like, if we're gonna continue this, it can no longer be vanilla. It has to immediately be all the shades of

Ariel (06:27)
Grey.

Anastasia Steele about to graduate from college and Christian Grey is a multi-billionaire who owns Grey Industries.

is a owns quite a few very random companies like blow dry bars, charities, and publishing

Morgan (06:48)
The blow dry bar

is so specific.

Ariel (06:52)
It's it's a whole thing. We're not even gonna get to that but the amount that I could just

talk about this for days But anyways, they meet and Then he finds out that she's a virgin and he's like well I have to immediately take your virginity and he in fact does in a

Vanilla way

she lost her virginity a week or so ago.

Morgan (07:11)
but it's

still very recent.

Ariel (07:14)
It was very, very recent.

we're gonna bop into this. You ready?

Morgan (07:19)
Hot

What did he say about do? He didn't do it. He didn't do the due diligence. now they're in a dark room. We still can't see where they are. He's kissing her.

Ariel (07:25)
Yeah, he's like, don't worry about it.

Morgan (07:35)
We're meant to feel really intense, but there's like no chemistry. The music is going so much and he keeps staring at her Take off your shoes.

Ariel (07:41)
music's doing a lot of the heavy lifting here.

he's obsessed with her lips.

He always is like, you bite your lip, you know what that does to you. It's so annoying.

Morgan (07:55)
Okay,

so now it looks like they're in a closet. There's a lot of like mahogany wood everywhere. He's taking her dress off. You can't even see her body yet. Okay, now we see it. She has like target underwear on.

Why are you braiding her hair? Is this a sleepover?

Ariel (08:08)
He's braiding her hair.

No, this is how he wants her to be. This is the protocol in his household.

Morgan (08:14)
Got it. Okay.

Was this not outlined in the contract?

Ariel (08:19)
No, none of this was outlined anywhere. He's like, go lie down and don't look at me.

Morgan (08:21)
Okay, great.

so now she's lying down on a platform.

It almost looks like she's getting ready to pray,

Ariel (08:30)
this is his kinky dungeon full of red.

Morgan (08:34)
⁓ the red room. It's got red leather couches. I love he's got like expensive wood in here to hold all his toys. grabbed a whip. Little crop.

what are you going to do to her hand? He's touching her with the riding crop and moving his way towards her hand. Hits her hand.

Yeah, it probably hurt. What?

What?

Ariel (09:00)
I don't actually find that bit so much, but...

Morgan (09:02)
What does this even mean? Most of your fear

is in your head.

Ariel (09:07)
Well, in sensory deprivation, yes.

Morgan (09:10)
she has cuffed her hands above her head attaching to like some kind of structure.

walking around her like he's like a panther and he's gonna sniff her neck and she's enjoying him sniffing her neck and touching her body.

Ariel (09:17)
See you next time.

Morgan (09:30)
So.

Ariel (09:32)
The music.

Morgan (09:33)
Music cue for that is wild. So we're still not seeing anything from below her chest. So I guess he just briefly touched her below her underwear and then was like, that's good. And now he's dropping down. Again, this music is insane.

Ariel (09:47)
She loved it.

Morgan (09:52)
reality shows have subtler music cues. This is ridiculous.

And she's throwing her head around like, whoa. And now he's taking her underwear off. This is all taking ⁓ and he smelled her panties.

the riding

crop around her buttocks towards the front. on the butt, that's fine.

now the Beyonce song is coming on.

on her face, putting the riding crop in her mouth, in her armpit. Don't put that riding crop in her armpit and then put it back in her mouth now. he's hitting right below her breast, going down her torso, hitting her random places. There's been no conversation of how hard he's gonna hit. Now he's tying her up. Somehow she got down from before.

He's tying her up with a red rope.

Ariel (10:42)
I can just tell he's not good at Shibari. I just know.

Morgan (10:44)
No,

Ariel (10:46)
Montage!

Morgan (10:46)
Okay, so now they're in a bedroom

and they're and he's taking his pants off and he's got a weird leather floor

a montage where they're going back and forth between having seks and her being tied up and them being in the bedroom and them being in the red room.

Those cuffs look so heavy.

Ariel (11:05)
but they don't look uncomfortable as much as they just look hefty, know? So,

Morgan (11:08)
No.

Yeah,

Ariel (11:12)
quick thoughts before we go to the next bit.

Morgan (11:15)
Watching that scene, I know that they wanted that to be so much hotter than it was.

Ariel (11:21)
Hahahaha

Morgan (11:23)
thought this is the spiciest shit we could ever put on a screen and I'm like

on a scale of one to heated rivalry, this was a one.

Ariel (11:35)
I Just think it's so different from real BDSM

It's all over the place. usually you discuss your scenes ahead of time. You don't throw them out there.

Morgan (11:42)
Yes.

there are no safe words. There's been no discussion of boundaries.

it all just feels very vaguely kinky without it being very clear

Ariel (11:58)
this film

Posits the idea to people who don't have experience with BDSM that it's kind of inaccessible due to financial constraints that in order to do any scene you need this much stuff you need like 15 different riding crops and the whole business and just like no This is like the most insane thing I've ever seen

Morgan (12:14)
Right.

Ariel (12:22)
for reference, 90 % of seks toys look like this piece of garbage over here. Or this piece of garbage! Yay! For reference to our non-viewers, we are holding a flogger and a paddle.

Morgan (12:23)
Sure. ⁓

Yeah.

That's like.

And then there is a wide range of the quality of products you can get. Like you can get the handmade real leather like really fancy. Like there's an art to making, right, there's an art to making all these different props. But

Ariel (12:45)
Sure.

Or would. Yeah. ⁓

Morgan (12:54)
the implication is that

so deep into quink that he has this huge elaborate setup, but all they show is minimal binding and the use of a riding And they're like, he's crazy.

Ariel (13:07)
Which is maybe

Morgan (13:11)
it feels like the scene was written by someone who's like heard of quink and is like, I'm gonna write a quink movie.

Ariel (13:17)
is the exact problem of Fifty Shades of Grey kind of across the board

Morgan (13:23)
positioned to be this like super into this world. We are supposed to judge him as a bit depraved for being so into quink, which is a whole other conversation. But all they show him doing is spanking.

Ariel (13:40)
there is more context, in the course of the film that she really just isn't a BDSM person. And he keeps pushing it on her. The next film, she has broken up with him and he like finds her and buys the business that she works at.

focusing on this scene, he has said like she knows her safe words.

They have discussed them and she knows them. she is mildly aware that he is a sadist. If he has not said exactly as much, he has stated it in his contract that nobody signs and that he enjoys being a but also part of your job as a dom is to

Morgan (14:17)
Yes.

Ariel (14:20)
check and make sure that you are not going over limits as stated you don't need to say red in order for you to notice that it is no longer consensual.

Morgan (14:31)
There's so much of

an onus on her to draw the line and there's zero expectation for him.

to draw any or check in just because she shows up That doesn't mean he has carte blanche to do whatever he wants until she says the safe word. Like that's not how quink works. we were doing this in a more realistic way, she could say, Hey, I want to see And then he could

say, okay, well, it would look like this, X, Y, and Z. Would that work for you? And then she could either say yes, or she could be like, hey, let's pull it back, or let's find a different version of that. Like, what is the thing that you're after? Is it sadism? Is it humiliation? Is, you know, whatever. then you can figure something out.

Ariel (15:05)
Mm-hmm.

Morgan (15:18)
her character has almost no agency

Ariel (15:21)
She doesn't have the experience or knowledge to understand what she's asking for. And in that situation, he should know that it is up to him to give that context and clarity, that he should be over analyzing her body expressions in this moment.

Morgan (15:35)
Yes.

Ariel (15:40)
after explaining what he plans to

reality of the quink world, the bottom, the sub is the one in control of the scene and this she has no agency, she's a leaf in the wind, and she's just chilling and enjoying

Morgan (15:49)
Yes.

Ariel (15:55)
The writer of this just wanted her fantasies on paper and she did that.

Morgan (15:59)
if you're just writing down your fantasies, that's one thing, but when you're going to publish something, you have a responsibility understand what you're talking

the harm that it probably caused people who watch this thought this is what quink is. I'm just going to do whatever this film said. There are very few.

accurate portrayals of quink.

Ariel (16:25)
Mm-hmm

my mom read this series and she loved it. And I think it does touch upon some fantasies that people have both about A) a billionaire reaching out and picking them and being super super desirous and obsessed with you. something that Edward Cullen does to Bella. Like I get it. I see it. I understand.

Morgan (16:39)
Totally.

Ariel (16:48)
It's when you try to put this into practice that it sort of falls apart. Couple of things. Number one, Dakota Johnson said that this was wildly different from the movie she signed up for.

the script completely changed and they hired Jamie Dornan and they didn't have any issues on set or anything that I'm aware of, but at...

that point as an actor if you sign on to a project it doesn't matter how many times it has changed you are signed on even if it suddenly is out of your boundaries. but this is the same thing that

with Madame Webb it started off a very different film and she was signed on and then she didn't really have an out there were you know you can break contract

Morgan (17:30)
you can leave at any point if you want to. Yeah.

Ariel (17:35)
Yes, but this was

Morgan (17:36)
Okay.

Ariel (17:36)
such a high IP project in Planned Parenthood, they have what consent consists of. And one of the things is that it's freely given. And in a situation like film,

showing no clothes showing simulated seks, it's not freely given because you're being paid to do it. There is a level of coercion to it because the amount of money you could make from something like 50 Shades of Grey is really life-changing and significant. So you try to just be as fully informed as possible, but she couldn't even really do that because they kept changing things on her.

That being said, she's really grateful for the experience and it's not like she had a horrible time on set, although she did get whiplash apparently from one of the simulated seks Jamie Dornan was throwing her on the bed like 17 takes in a row and she like couldn't move her neck the next day.

She was laughing about it in a recent interview, but I was like, damn, that's really, really

want to add lastly here to my list of notes that the director and Jamie Dornan apparently met with several doms to make sure he was doing it correctly and authentically.

Morgan (18:44)
I'd be so curious what was done during those sessions with the doms because there was nothing that felt accurate about these scenes. they gave the author a lot more power.

Ariel (18:51)
you

Morgan (18:59)
to get the rights to this IP than they normally do. So her say had a lot more weight than it normally would have.

would have to change

the scenes and change a lot about the story in order to accommodate that if you actually wanted to make this feel Grey is not concerned with what she wants.

is interested in, what she's ready for. there's just no conversation about that whatsoever.

Ariel (19:17)
No.

Morgan (19:24)
do they ever use a body double for Dakota Johnson? Because it looks like for some of the scenes it could have been.

Ariel (19:31)
She had a butt because she has tattoos, not because she felt like she didn't want her body to be seen. But then again, that's just what's being framed in these articles on entertainment tonight, so who's to say?

Morgan (19:32)
Okay.

Ariel (19:44)
I think it's time to get into the sweet spice. Yeah.

Morgan (19:46)
Let's do it. Let's do it.

Ariel (19:48)
Alright, well, welcome to the Spice Scale, our not so scientific way of rating intimacy scenes based on consent and power dynamics, technical craft and coordination excellence, and heat factor. Each category gets a score from one to five, with five being the highest, then we add it all up to give the scene a final letter grade. Let's start off with consent and power dynamics, how the scene depicts consent and power in the story and if known behind the scenes. Woo!

Morgan (20:16)
Zero.

Ariel (20:18)
Yeah,

the power dynamics are depicted clearly, but they're so problematic,

Morgan (20:26)
it's clear the power dynamics within the relationship when we're talking about the power dynamics of the BDSM scenes that they're participating in, she should be the one that's actually in control by being the one who is in the subordinate position and she's not.

Ariel (20:44)
I go with a one. I think a one is fine. we've talked about this a fair amount already. craft and coordination excellence, the staging, film coverage, modesty protection, choreography, and overall execution of the scene. thought the modesty coverage was good.

Morgan (20:48)
Yeah,

Ariel (21:02)
even

in that montage of all that business granted we see her topless we see under hair for both of them and I'm not sure if that's a Merkin or not is that a mercantile? yeah

Morgan (21:13)
We saw under hair? I thought we cut away just

before the underwear revealed under hair.

Ariel (21:18)
Well, we see the top of the under hair

But I will say I saw zero modesty garments. I know at the very least maybe he's wearing one. She has a body double and I thought it was pretty seamless.

the penetration timing seemed to make sense even though we were all over the place and it was very hard to tell. But maybe the music swept me into complacency and I'm like, fine, that looks good for me.

Morgan (21:42)
Yeah,

the montage did get very confusing and not in a way that felt intentional. thing that also really bothered me was the pace of everything. They were really trying.

to make it feel like we're building tension, but there just was none. And so you end up just watching these two people moving slowly, staring at each other, It's a great

Ariel (22:00)
Yeah

Hey Morgan, how would you fix that?

Morgan (22:12)
One thing you can do to quickly create tension between two actors is have them sync up their breath. It feels like it's a really small thing, but it does create a tension between the two people to have them be in sync. can create ineffable quality between two folks. I would vary up the speed by which they're moving

and at the end we've shot everything else, we haven't done any simulated seks, but we know these two don't have any chemistry, then that's a conversation we can have and figure out a way. Because at that point you know, right? And I've seen clips from other scenes of this movie and I'm like, there's zero chemistry between these two people.

Ariel (22:51)
I just think it's so funny because you are right, but also like the amount of people who love Fifty Shades of Grey for the chemistry, like this is as hot a take as my Eyes Wide Shut take I feel,

Morgan (23:02)
Here's the thing is I feel like people get tricked by the spectacle like, ooh, we're in this red room and he's holding a whip and he's staring at her intensely and looking at her lips I'm watching this and it's like watching a statue.

Ariel (23:21)
Hahaha

Morgan (23:21)
like two

statues. And it's not that they're bad actors necessarily, it's just sometimes people just don't have chemistry for whatever reason, was working on this one project, it was a short that really hinged on the chemistry of these two actors. They were playing exes who had previously been in really long-term relationship

Then they finally see each other for the first time after the breakup and then they end up hooking up.

And the first time during rehearsal, we saw that these two actors didn't have a lot of chemistry I did some exercises with them where I had them stand on opposite sides of this small room. And one of them like told the other one when they can move forward or when they could stay and

create that pull between the two of them because one person really wants to get to that destination, the other person isn't allowing them and that helps create that feeling.

So there's a bunch of different things you can do. are some of your tricks for building chemistry?

Ariel (24:20)
I love breath. I think your use of breath is great. a sharp inhale through the nose is very different than a slow exhale through the nose.

something happened in my body and I feel it sexually. Whoo, kind of thing. A slow. Yeah, no, no, like snorting cocaine is not a sexy look. Or like when he puts his nose up to and he goes. I'm like, I don't know that's that's not doing it for me. ⁓

Morgan (24:34)
Yeah, whereas like this is not sexy.

It did look

like he was doing a line off of her neck as opposed to like taking in her scent.

Ariel (24:52)
little bit.

Yeah, I'm like,

listen, if this was a wolf thing, I'd actually be on board with it with that movement contextually.

Morgan (24:59)
Yes.

Ariel (25:02)
But in this moment, it just seems a little weird, particularly after putting her underwear directly into his nose. there's no other proof of him being interested in her sense-sually ⁓

Morgan (25:12)
Hahaha.

I say what

Ariel (25:18)
Yeah, I did that and that happened and now I regret it. But anyway,

If I have more time, I'd love to do chemistry exercises. I don't usually have more time. for technical craft and coordination excellence, although I was confused by the editing, I don't think that it did a bad

Morgan (25:26)
Hahaha

Ariel (25:37)
I think I would give it like a 3.5 or a 4.

Morgan (25:40)
hear what you're saying of like the moments of penetration and the coverage of the modesty garments, but building of tension, the chemistry between the two of them, it was so bad and just fell so flat. I would be closer to a two, so we can compromise and do a three.

Ariel (25:48)
the tension. yeah.

do a three.

Morgan (25:58)
they would have been better off choosing a flagger over a crop Just because you have so many more possibilities,

Ariel (26:03)
Yes!

Morgan (26:06)
You can have it like moving softly on top of another person. gently having it hit there's so much more sensually that you can play with and also the building up of like slowly bringing it around and then increasing the speed and then having that get closer to the person.

Ariel (26:06)
okay.

Morgan (26:26)
a crop there are things you can do it's a little bit more limited visually in terms of how you can build things

Ariel (26:27)
I agree.

I think it would have been stronger to go up her spine when she was seated more so than the neck and shoulder because going up the spine you can see the ripples and you can see the shoulder blades move backwards maybe the head tips back or even tips forward you can see the hands twitch there's more nerve endings also just in the spine than in the neck shoulder region

Morgan (26:38)
Yes.

And you, got

to see that like S curve. That's the other thing is like, we really.

Ariel (27:02)
Yeah, nice little, no

S-curves, zero.

Morgan (27:06)
No S-curves.

We're only seeing the parts of the body that are being impacted. We're not seeing her gripping something. We're not seeing her biting her lower lip. We're not seeing her toes clenching.

Ariel (27:17)
yeah i also don't know without the music there is no context as to why he's hitting her and where in a real scene there is communication there's a moment in the beginning of scene where he says keep your eyes down and she says yes sir and then later she looks up at him

Play with that's when maybe uses the crop on her rib cage if that's the journey you want to do. You could also take the crop and roll it around the areola instead of the nipple directly which would sensation there and then she looks up at him, crop. a reason and a motivation for the movements and we're there with you more.

in random places for no particular reason in silence, presumably without the music, this scene in silence would be insane.

Morgan (28:08)
just...

Ariel (28:08)
Should we watch it without any music?

Yeah, where it's just like, I think we're gonna, yeah.

Morgan (28:11)
that's a great idea. I love it.

I want one of those edits where they add in the breathing. So

it's just like her breath the crop making contact.

Ariel (28:22)
I'm gonna just breathe in the background so you can feel the experience of it. All

Morgan (28:24)
Yes!

And now his how did he not tickle her armpits by putting his hands right there?

Ariel (28:34)
It's very Jennifer

Grey and dirty dancing. She's just cracking up every time.

Morgan (28:38)
It is. And she giggled

a lot. And that was actually Jennifer Grey giggling. Like she couldn't handle that part. And then they just kept it. That wasn't planned.

Ariel (28:43)
Yeah.

the heavy lifting that the music did on this like honestly

Morgan (28:50)
It is because I'm like

really he's just tickling her like I would be giggling during this because he's doing all these light touches on her sides down her stomach along her neck and I'm like that's all ticklish.

Ariel (29:06)
Also, this story is

so deeply unclear. He just puts his hand down and she's like, ah, I'm like, what did he do? His shoulders not moving.

Morgan (29:13)
He put his hand down for,

his hand went down underneath her underwear for a second and then came right back up. And I'm like, what, truly what could he have done? And now he's making out with her belly button like it's her mouth.

Ariel (29:23)
Okay,

the lightest of belly button kisses and she's like having a ball up there. yeah, I think that was our butt person. Okay, great. we're not really seeing like a curve of anything.

Morgan (29:30)
Yeah,

And then he sniffs the underwear.

He

takes the crop down her armpit, which just feels like a weird choice for where to put the crop. I love your pitch of having it go down her spine.

Ariel (29:50)
or like inner thigh at the very least. Like you don't even need to see the vulva to make that enticing.

Morgan (29:53)
Yeah!

down her chest, down her torso, around her breast, around her thighs. Like we could have hinted at so many he hits...

Ariel (30:06)
I do like the little

smile moment she has there. That's not bad. But also like, why did that hurt so much more? The rib cage should hurt much more than the stomach should. he seems like a Dom who doesn't know what he's doing. I feel weird that they saw Dom before this.

Morgan (30:10)
nice.

Yeah.

I feel like they didn't really listen to what the Dom said. That's just my instinct. these are very hard thrusts.

Ariel (30:29)
this looks painful but i mean if that's the vibe then that's the vibe those handcuffs are insanity

Morgan (30:31)
Yeah.

Morgan (30:37)
It's so much worse. The music is doing even more heavy lifting than I thought it was. Like his thrusting is terrible. It is these like really short, sharp staccato thrusts.

Ariel (30:39)
It is! It's work.

Morgan (30:57)
I don't think we're trying to tell the story of, he wants the thrusting to be painful too, and that's what they're into. I think he's supposed to be amazing at seks billionaire, huge p3nis, and I don't think we're even telling that story, to be honest.

Ariel (31:08)
giant p3nised man.

The thrusts are too short to... tell the story of a large p3nis

Morgan (31:17)
The thrusts are really short it's, we

are not telling the story of a large p3nis

Ariel (31:24)
the story of the thrusting is that he has an average sized p3nis he likes to very sharply with.

Morgan (31:31)
size genuinely doesn't matter if you know how to work with what you have and you know how to do other things.

Ariel (31:35)
It doesn't.

Morgan (31:41)
be the story that, you know, this guy doesn't happen to be super well endowed, but we do want to tell the story that he's like great at seks. Cool. Let's show him doing other things that are enjoyable for her.

we're not getting that at all.

Ariel (31:58)
we're going three. Small p3nis billionaire. This is a billionaire with a small p3nis who likes to tie your wrists I like that as a tagline, like 50 shades of grey: small p3nis billionaire meets college student.

Morgan (31:58)
is a billionaire with a small p3nis who likes to tie your wrists.

It just...

don't think that story sells millions and millions of copies of a book and tickets to a movie. It did, because people didn't realize that's the story that was being told.

Ariel (32:19)
But it did. And yet, and yet it did.

Morgan (32:26)
of how much better it could have been. Think of how much more successful it could have been if we had just made some of those adjustments.

also realized watching this back, we don't have any sense of what their individual experience of this scene is. Like,

Ariel (32:41)
No!

Morgan (32:42)
what is his perspective of her when she's bent over the table and is waiting for him to hit her? And is his breath during that? What is she feeling? Is she's anticipating for this other hit to come after she's already experienced one and enjoyed

Ariel (32:57)
I 100 % agree. in film, you shoot a scene, you do have to think, who is this scene about?

50 Shades of Grey.

Is just like twilight in that we are all supposed to feel like bella It is about us and our experience and I think that the filmmakers assumed that yes, then we want to see her primarily Enjoying herself and enjoying the physicality of But the reality is if we're all her then I want to see his reaction So I feel like he's looking at us looking at me and so

we can see how much he's enjoying it that's so much sexier to see how he's losing his mind over her than her losing her mind over inexplicable physical action like softly kissing her

Morgan (33:49)
you know, when her hands are being tied, having a focus of like what that texture is like, what that constraint is like, her resisting against the constraints, you there's no sense of that play there.

Ariel (33:55)
Yeah, or like going, yeah.

Morgan (34:02)
Which is weird given that he calls this the playroom.

Ariel (34:05)
other conversation about that. That's a whole other ballgame.

but technical craft or coordination excellence? Did we decide two or three?

Morgan (34:14)
See, now I want it to be a two. Now that I've watched it without music, I'm like, it's worse.

Ariel (34:19)
I think

I agree with you and I'm happy to make it a two because without the music it truly is a two. All right, which lands us at heat factor the level of erotic charge or sexual tension in the scene. I...

Morgan (34:22)
Okay, let's make it a two. Good drops.

that's gonna be a big

goose egg for me.

Ariel (34:35)
are moments that are attractive to look at. no sexual tension, but they so want there to be. There's one touch in there I don't mind. And that's why I want to give it a one.

Morgan (34:46)
But to me, what you're describing is not a

hot scene. Like, okay, so.

Ariel (34:51)
Well, the touch was

hot for a moment.

Morgan (34:54)
Okay, so there are attractive people in the scene. We see attractive bodies. That doesn't make something hot inherently.

Ariel (35:04)
true, but the touch was nice. I, I, my, one of the spanks was nice and I'm willing to go from zero to one because of the one touch in this.

Morgan (35:06)
One of the touch was nice.

Because of one touch I don't think it earns it. This is a movie that is about

quink and only one of the many quink elements was

Ariel (35:22)
Well, here's the thing, whether it's zero or one, is the same. is an F either way.

Morgan (35:33)
thing fails.

Ariel (35:33)
which

was so widely criticized, cause they put a mass market BDSM label on this. everyone is like, this is about control. This is about coercion. This is abuse coded romance.

Morgan (35:45)
Yeah.

Ariel (35:47)
I think that I see 50 Shades style stuff a lot in verticals and they're always trying to recapture something about the way that this film came out.

Morgan (35:51)
Yes.

it's actually hotter when you do it the way that people who know, yeah, the way that it's properly done. I'm like, it's actually a lot

Ariel (36:00)
And it's done.

Morgan (36:05)
so much more you can play with if you have someone who's knowledgeable about not just the broad strokes of how this works, but like you were saying, like knowing what parts of the body have more nerve endings and are going to be more stimulated by a certain act.

Ariel (36:21)
See, I think that we should remake this movie shot for fix it. Just fix all of it. You in?

Morgan (36:28)
⁓ I'm so

Ariel (36:30)
Well, on that note, do have anything to plug, Morgan?

Morgan (36:32)
I'm out.

this micro drama ad that I worked on for Maybelline, called Maybe This Christmas is out right now. It was a really fun one to work on. It has the two leads from Hot Frosty and they crushed it and I got to intimacy coordinate.

with an inflatable Santa character. So that was really fun. You got anything?

Ariel (37:00)
I was on another podcast as a guest. I was on The Vertical Take. I believe it is coming out January 4th, so that should be out by the time this comes out. go listen to me talk about intimacy coordination in another environment.

Also, am going to be hosting a workshop on intimacy coordination for actors on January 31st.

Morgan (37:26)
That's exciting.

Ariel (37:27)
Shall we, shall we do the credits? Let's do, let's do the credits.

Morgan (37:27)
Should we read the crap?

Ariel (37:30)
right, well thank you so much for listening to Faking It. This episode's research and context was done by me, Ariel.

Morgan (37:37)
You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every other hang day, Wednesday.

Ariel (37:44)
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Morgan (37:54)
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Ariel (38:01)
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Morgan (38:18)
This episode was produced by Ariel Leigh Cohen, social media and branding by Morgan Smith. Our theme song is Faking It by Suno.ai until we get monetized. So feel free to send us a new one. Credits for the film or show we reacted to are in the episode caption. Stay real, fakers.