This weekend marks 10 years since Emma Stone’s Olive Penderghast first opened the card from her grandmother that hilariously poured out the song “Pocketful of Sunshine” in Easy A. The coming-of-age comedy is a memorable rendition of the classic Scarlet Letter story and served as the moment when Stone truly became a leading talent. Director Will Gluck looked back on this anniversary by talking about another iconic scene in the film: the fake s-x scene.
If you need a memory refresher, in Easy A, Olive and her best friend, Brandon (Dan Byrd), decide to stage a behind-closed-doors “s-x scene” at a high school party after Brandon is bullied for his s-xuality. Together, they make strange grunts, jump on the bed and smack each other to convince their classmates they just did the deed… and they totally buy it. Gluck reminisced on the scene with these words:
Emma smacked Dan many times, and initially, as I recall, Emma didn't want to smack him hard. And Dan is just such a trouper, telling her, 'You have to keep smacking me, you have to keep smacking me!' And if you watch the movie, those are real smacks…. But the only way that works is if they committed. And that was really fun.
When watching it, you can just tell that Emma Stone and Dan Bryd were having a blast with the scene, which uses comedy to commentate on the awkward and dramatized assumptions high school kids often have about s-x. Stone was somewhere around 20 years old at the time and understandably, felt weird about actually smacking her co-star. Byrd assured her she just had to do it and what we see on screen are real smacks. Check out the scene below:
There are a few more funny tidbits Will Gluck exclusively shared with EW in spirit of the film’s tenth anniversary. The director said he told them they needed to get “as sweaty and as physical” as one would get during s-x, causing the pair to break the bed on set twice while jumping on it. He playfully called out IKEA for the on-set damages. Stone even did this to get out of all the physical activity:
This was also the time that Emma had her fake asthma attack. She was jumping up on the bed so much she started getting physically sick. We had to stop filming. She said she had asthma. A doctor came, treated her, and at the end she said, 'I don't actually have asthma; I'm just out of shape.’
Will Gluck (who also directed Fired Up! and Friends with Benefits) also said that the grunts Dan Bryd does in the movie were rerecorded in ADR because his grunts on set were “too hoarse.” Easy A was also originally rated R, with its curse word-count clocking in at 246 before they decided to make the film PG-13. All in all, Gluck said it was “one of the most innocent s-x scenes” he’s ever done because its a fake s-xual moment made from the perspective of people who have yet to have the experience.
