Riley Keough recalls ‘awkward’ sex scene with her husband for Daisy Jones & the Six
Riley Keough’s advice, actors: If you’re going to film a sex scene, don’t do it with your significant other. Keough learned that lesson the hard way after she and her husband, Ben Smith-Petersen, shot an extremely awkward fake sex scene together for her fictional new rock-doc series, Daisy Jones & the Six. Smith-Petersen makes a brief
appearance in the show’s second episode as a man Keough’s character Daisy Jones sleeps with one night.
“The cameo came about because I have to have intercourse with a random person in the show,” Keough explained on Thursday’s episode of Late Night With Seth Meyers. “The producers were like, ‘It’d be so funny if it was your husband!'”
But… in actuality… “It was more awkward,” she admitted. “I think that they were thinking it would be less awkward, and then we got there and they’re like, ‘This is really uncomfortable.’ Like, for one, I’ve never had pretend sex with my husband.”
She continued, “And for two, normally, typically, when you do these things, it’s somebody coming in for the day. You’re like, ‘Hello, nice to meet you,’ and you kind of get down to business and it’s very professional. With him, we were just giggling the whole time.”
Meyers then joked that he’d be “so worried” if he had to have pretend sex with his wife in front of people in case she drew any comparisons to them doing the actual deed.
“That’s what happened!” Keough exclaimed. “In this scene, I’m not really enjoying it. And I really kept feeling inclined to be like, ‘In real life, it’s not like this!’ Then I was like, ‘I’ll just keep that to myself.'”
In the scene, Daisy, a fledgling solo artist trying to make her first record, could not care less about the dude in her bed because she’s entirely focused on writing new songs. When Smith-Petersen’s character asks if they should change positions, she effectively ends the evening by reaching for her journal to jot down some lyrics.
Meyers joked, “That’s good that you guys found together that when you have real sex, it should be with him, and pretend sex should be with strangers.”
To which a laughing Keough replied, “Yes! It was.”
Keough, who is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and the daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley, previously told EW that her experience growing up in a musical family helped shape her performance as Daisy, but only to an extent. “I’m very familiar with musicians,” she said, “but I’m also very not familiar with singing or playing guitar. Like at all.”
In fact, Keough and her Daisy Jones bandmates — played by Sam Claflin, Suki Waterhouse, Will Harrison, Josh Whitehouse, and Sebastian Chacon — attended rock camp together in order to transform into the rollicking group they portray on screen. Their hard work culminated in a full-fledged Daisy Jones & the Six concert in front of 100 Prime Video executives and their families.
Watch Keough describe her awkward pretend-sex moment — and performing the concert with her Daisy Jones & the Six cohorts — in the clip above.
