Jackson White. Disney/Josh Stringer
Jackson White spilled all the Tell Me Lies tea, including how they film those steamy sex scenes.
White’s mom, Katey Sagal, and stepdad Kurt Sutter spoke to the Hulu star about making Tell Me Lies on an episode of their “PIE” podcast. White, 28, was quick to share some behind-the-scenes moments from both seasons.
“Here’s one that the internet will like,” White started during the Monday, October 22, episode. “You got one sex coordinator — one intimacy coordinator — that would line up with a week. So, it would be like a sex week, and there would be sex scenes all day long.”
The intimacy coordinator would be “running from set to set” because more than one sex scene was being filmed simultaneously.
“It would be like sex days,” White added. “And then I’d be in my trailer.”
The conversation continued with Sutter, 64, wondering whether the “sex coordinator” — as White referred to the job — was someone who taught him “how to do it.” White then recalled being criticized on a particular part of his performance while filming the first season.
“Someone was like, ‘He’s not thrusting right.’ I was like, ‘How?’ They’re like, ‘Well, he’s kind of, it doesn’t look like he’s inside,’” White said. “So, we have to make it so that it’s more realistic.”
White was also told he was doing “a body roll thing” when he should’ve done “more stationary” movement.
White was informed of his sex notes by Tell Me Lies showrunner Meaghan Oppenheimer.
“You have four pages of your thrusting notes,” Sutter joked. White added, “We worked on it, and I … nailed it.”
Tell Me Lies captivated fans with its steamy sex scenes — and the cast has been candid about the work that goes into those memorable moments. The Hulu series, which debuted in September 2022, introduced the tumultuous relationship between college students Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White). As viewers explored an eight-year time […]
Both Sagal, 70, and Sutter laughed at White’s story.
“Well, when you’re doing a sex scene, you don’t want to be, like, all up in their s—,” White continued.
White stars as Stephen DeMarco, a master manipulator, on Tell Me Lies. The show follows Stephen’s tumultuous relationship with Lucy Albright (played by White’s real-life girlfriend Grace Van Patten). The first season premiered in September 2022, and the second season aired its final episode earlier this month.
White and Van Patten, 27, initially played coy about their offscreen relationship, but the couple leaned into their real-life love story ahead of the second season.
“We didn’t think too much about trying to keep it hidden because it felt right and people were nice about it,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in August. “I know a lot of the press around this show is very clickbait-y, but I’m not precious or paranoid about privacy.
She added, “Our relationship is out there, but not too much of it. I think that just treating our relationship professionally, the way we treat it in our own lives, is the best way to go about it.”
