While filming intimate scenes with people you do not know very well can get real awkward, real fast, it was a little different for Angelina Jolie.

Starring in By the Sea, a movie she directed, Angelina Jolie was paired with Brad Pitt, her real-life husband at the time.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith

The actress recalls just how awkward and strange it was to film a love scene with her then-husband because she was playing two roles in the film – actor, and director. She had to make sure the shots were perfect all while dealing with being naked in a bathtub in front of other people with cameras.

Although Jolie is no stranger to intimate scenes, By the Sea was particularly challenging for her as her co-star was her husband.

Angelina Jolie’s Strange Experience with an Intimate Scene

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in By the Sea

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie met on the sets of the 2005 film, Mr. And Mrs. Smith. The duo later admitted that the film was where they first fell in love, despite Pitt being married to Jennifer Aniston at the time.

Fast forward ten years, Pitt and Jolie reunited for their second film, By the Sea, this time as a married couple. The film stars the actors as a couple struggling to make their marriage work.

Jolie opened up to Entertainment Weekly about the awkwardness she and Pitt felt while filming an intimate scene in the movie.

“It’s the strangest thing in the world to be lying naked in a bathtub with an iPad that’s showing you the shot outside, while your husband is at the door and you’re directing him to come in and make love to you. In front of a bunch of other men with cameras.”

Jolie continued that while as an artist she should have felt free, Pitt wouldn’t let eyes fall on his wife’s body as he gladly took over towel duty for her. She added that although love scenes are always strange to shoot, it is even stranger when you do it with someone you are intimate with in real life. The duo had to take the help of comedy to get through the scenes.

“I couldn’t get out of the bathtub to get to the monitor because the director is naked. We’re artists and want to be free, but Brad—it’s his wife. He was on towel duty. He’d hold the towel over me. Love scenes are strange anyway, but when you’re doing a love scene with a person that you really have s*x with?

The only way to get through it was for us to all talk about the absurdity of it and make sure no one was feeling awkward. We made as many jokes as possible.”

By the Sea went on to make a little over $3 million after being made on a budget of $10 million. The film also received an underwhelming response from the critics with only a 34% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Was By the Sea Based on Real Life?

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with their kids

Since the release of By the Sea and the couple’s divorce took place almost simultaneously, people rightfully wondered whether the fictional couple had some resemblance to the real-life couple.

While there may be similarities, Jolie shut down the speculations in an interview with Vogue stating, “it’s not autobiographical.” She went on to say,

“Brad and I have our issues…but if the characters were even remotely close to our problems, we couldn’t have made the film.”

A behind-the-scenes video from Vogue showed Pitt and Jolie having a great time on the sets as their kids joined them.

Jolie stated that By the Sea was like her and Pitt’s honeymoon as they flew with their kids to the Maltese Island for the shoot. As for Pitt, he stated that By the Sea was “one of the most challenging things” he has taken on in his career.