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PODCAST

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan

Ariel Leigh Cohen & Morgan Smith

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan is the podcast that strips down the mystery of Hollywood’s most private moments, and makes you laugh while doing it. Hosted by Intimacy Coordinators Ariel Leigh Cohen and Morgan Smith, each episode dives into the world of film sets, sex scenes, and all the awkward, hilarious, and surprisingly tender stories that come with them.From behind-the-scenes Hollywood secrets to spicy movie moments, we’re here to answer the questions you didn’t even know you had: How do actors

tv & film film reviews

All Episodes

40:42

Three ICs Walk Into a Podcast | Chala Hunter Talks...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2026/02/11

This one’s a BIG ONE. Ariel and Morgan sit down with intimacy coordinator Chala Hunter, the creative force behind the intimacy work in Heated Rivalry, for a deep dive into how some of the most talked-about scenes on TV actually get made. From the early days of learning the job during the #MeToo shift to stepping onto a set packed with hockey vibes, choreography, and high emotional stakes, Chala pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to build intimacy that feels grounded, safe, and e...

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32:32

Church, But Make It Gay | Why She’s Gotta Have It...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2026/02/04

Some shows open quietly. Season 2 of "She’s Gotta Have It" opens with a bang — literally. In this episode, Ariel and Morgan break down the iconic simulated sex montage from Season 2, Episode 1 of She’s Gotta Have It, focusing on how lighting, space, and who’s in control radically reshape how intimacy is experienced and understood onscreen. They get into it all: How Spike Lee uses daylight vs candlelight to reflect different emotional statesWhy this scene feels devotional rather than voyeurist...

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33:56

Is This Allowed? | Why “The Handmaiden” Rewrites...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2026/01/21

This episode is a love letter to immaculate choreography, devastating eye contact, and sapphic tension that could power a small city. Ariel and Morgan dive into the two iconic intimacy scenes from Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden: with scenes so explicit, so intentional, and so beautifully constructed that they still feel transgressive nearly a decade later. Set during Japan’s occupation of Korea in the 1930s, the film takes familiar sapphic tropes and flips them inside out, using intimacy as...

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38:39

All Props, No Process | Why “Fifty Shades of Grey”...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2026/01/07

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 fl...

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31:38

Back Arches & Check-Ins | Why “Heated Rivalry” Gets...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/12/19

We heard you. LOUDLY. In this very special holiday Bonus Episode, Ariel and Morgan dive headfirst into Heated Rivalry, the wildly requested gay hockey romance that dropped on November 28 and immediately set the internet on fire. Based on Rachel Reid’s beloved romance novels, the series follows Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, two elite professional hockey players whose rivalry turns into a secret, years-long love affair. What starts as a teenage hookup evolves into a deeply emotional, ...

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38:29

A Christmas Orgy | Voyeurism in “Eyes Wide Shut”

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/12/17

It’s our second holiday episode, which means it’s time for a true Christmas classic: Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999), a film that somehow contains one of the most infamous orgy scenes in cinema history. In this episode, Ariel and Morgan unpack the cultural mythology surrounding the masked ritual scene and explain what the film is really doing beneath the cloaks, candles, and choreography. Spoiler: it’s not about pleasure, it’s about power, performance, and male insecurity. They ...

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38:37

The Sapphic Starter Pack | Unpacking the "Carol"...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/12/03

For our holiday special, we’re entering The Sapphic Canon. This week, Ariel and Morgan are joined by filmmaker and comedy icon Amanda Holland (On the Phone with Ash and Amanda) to dissect one of the most breathtakingly intimate love scenes in queer cinema: the motel moment from Todd Haynes’ Carol (2015). From tension you could pour over pancakes to the robe pull that changed lesbian history, the trio breaks down why this scene still feels like a masterclass in sensual restraint, visual storyt...

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37:59

Rough Romance | Breaking Down All the Breaking in...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/11/26

Marking the end of hoa hoa hoa season, we finally did it. We tackled the honeymoon scene: the headboard-shattering, pillow-exploding, furniture-destroying moment that launched a thousand fanfics and exactly zero realistic intimacy expectations. In this episode, Ariel and Morgan break down why Edward and Bella’s “rough sex” isn’t rough… or even sex-adjacent. From supernatural metaphors to YA-safe choreography, they unpack how a scene expected to portray feral passion somehow ends up looking li...

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32:53

For the Love of Muscle | Celebrating Athletic Bodies...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/11/19

This one’s flexing in all the right ways. Ariel and Morgan break down the sweaty, gritty, gloriously unhinged intimacy of Love Lies Bleeding, a film where bodies don’t just collide, they transform. From gym-floor lust to desert-heat devotion, they explore how the movie uses athleticism, desire, and danger to tell a love story that’s as physical as it is emotional. They get into it all: Why Love Lies Bleeding treats strength as a love languageHow the film choreographs intimacy that’s sexy, swe...

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35:21

Greased Lightning | Breaking Down Danny DeVito’s...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/11/05

This one’s… slippery. Ariel and Morgan break down one of the most chaotic “intimacy” scenes in sitcom history: the moment Danny DeVito crawls out of a couch, naked, sweaty, and reborn, at a Christmas party in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. From the logistics of modesty garments to the ethics of public nudity (fictional or otherwise), they dive deep into what happens when comedy, discomfort, and vulnerability collide. They unpack it all: How Danny DeVito pulled off the greasiest birth scen...

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37:50

Hot Blooded | Why "Sinners" Proves You Don’t Need...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/10/31

For our first-ever BONUS EPISODE, we’re sinking our teeth into something perfectly suited for spooky season: Ryan Coogler’s 2025 gothic horror hit, Sinners. This one has it all: vampires, sensuality, Southern heat, and Michael B. Jordan at his steamiest. Ariel and Morgan break down two pivotal intimacy scenes, one tender, one terrifying, and unpack how Sinners turns eroticism into a matter of survival. We get into it all: Why this film proves that you don’t need nudity to make a scene scorchi...

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31:22

She Bites Back | Dissecting the Horror, Humor, and...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/10/22

The bite heard ’round the world. In this episode, Ariel and Morgan take on one of the most infamous (and crazily campy) scenes in horror-comedy history: the gynecologist sequence from Teeth (2007). From questionable medical protocol to perfect camp choreography, they break down what works, what really doesn’t, and why this movie about vagina dentata still manages to make audiences clench 17 years later. They tackle it all: How Teeth flips the horror trope of sexual violence on its head (and b...

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39:43

No Lies, Just Bodies | Is This "Lie with Me" Sex...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/10/08

Get ready for one of our most asked—and most controversial—questions: Do actors ever actually have sex on camera? In this episode, we're diving deep into the blurred lines between filmmaking and pornography. Ariel surprises Morgan with a deep dive into the notoriously heated and hard-to-find 2005 film, Lie with Me, a movie that famously plays with this very question. We break down the difference between softcore, hardcore, and simulated sex scenes, and ask: does it have to be real to feel rea...

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35:48

Room for Error | Breaking Down The Infamous Sex Scene...

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/09/24

Ariel & Morgan, two professional intimacy coordinators, pull back the curtain on how intimacy is really made for film and TV. In our very first episode, we kick things off with wild on-set stories (yes, one involves a horse 🐴 - don't worry, it's fake), break down what it really means to choreograph intimacy, and tackle the infamous simulated sex scene from the cult classic, The Room. We give Tommy Wiseau's awkward sequence a beat-by-beat analysis, rate it on our "Spice Scale," and

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1:45

Trailer | Faking It with Ariel and Morgan

Faking It with Ariel and Morgan ·

2025/09/16

Welcome to Faking It, the podcast where two professional intimacy coordinators pull back the curtain on how intimacy is really made for film and TV. This show blends behind-the-scenes secrets with laugh-out-loud commentary. Think: spicy movie moments, absurd Hollywood stories, and real talk about love, sex, and the art of pretending. If you’ve ever wondered how actors “make it look real” (without actually doing it), or just want to cackle through tales of fake sweat, fake kisses, and fake bed...

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15 results

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