Erin Markey had sex within a pile of people in "Shortbus," now on DVD. It brought in some extra loot and the former Michigander and her partner didn't even have to rehearse for the role. "We had been rehearsing for a number of years," Markey laughs.
Erin Markey: It was really exciting. I got a phone call from my friend and one of his friends who played the character with the braids who had the condoms that was walking around. He suggested to John (Cameron Mitchell) that we play the role of that couple that has sex, (the one) Sophia is always watching. And so we were one of three couples that were considered for that. And we didn't get it, so they were like, "Please come and be a sextra."
Between The Lines: What was it like?
EM: There were probably about 20 or 25 people that were the sextras, with critical parentheses around the "s." It was fun; it was a party. We actually did have to meet a couple of times before shooting cause John was really – he was really excited about the scenes.
BTL: Excited?
EM: Well, he said that he wanted to have sex with a girl for the first time. He was supposed to eat this lesbian out, but he chickened out at the last minute. He was more concerned about the shot.
BTL: What was the filming like?
EM: We had two different days of shooting. We were just all sitting around in our pajamas, drinking whiskey and playing cards for seven hours.
BTL: And you get paid for this?
EM: Yes, paid to have sex.
BTL: That's kind of like –
EM: A prostitute? (laughs)
BTL: How much sex went on during the shooting?
EM: We weren't having sex the whole day. We were waiting in like the green room, in this warehouse for several hours until they were ready for us. Then everybody got in the room. They (the crew) wanted it to seem like a big orgy, but they wanted it to not be dramatic and to be organized so they wanted everybody to like pair off with somebody. So the people that came into the process not having a partner had to partner up with somebody else in a similar position. Or you could be in a threesome kind of a thing but it had to be arranged beforehand. Um, yeah. So that was awkward for some people who, like on the day of the shooting, were like, 'Hey wanna have sex with me on film?"
BTL: Luckily you weren't one of those people.
EM: Well somebody asked me and my partner if they could have sex with us, but I wasn't ready to have that kind of relationship on film (laughs).
