When Halston premiered on Netflix May 14, everyone was talking about one thing: The clothes!
OK, maybe Halston’s creations weren’t top of mind by the end of the first episode, which found star Ewan McGregor getting pounded doggy style by soon-to-be-boyfriend Ed (played by Sullivan Jones). Over the course of five episodes, more time is lavished on Halston’s prodigious cocaine habit than on his sex life, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of hot man-on-man scenes.
READ: Ryan Murphy Turns ‘Halston’ as Threadbare As His Other Projects
But how accurate are these sex scenes, anyway? Sure, McGregor has a long history of playing gay in film so he’s an old pro at it all by now—and the series hired an intimacy coordinator—but we wondered what a porn professional has to say about these scenes.
Enter mr. Pam.
The porn directing legend—literally, she was named one by GayVN Awards earlier this year—watched four sex scenes featuring Halston and a variety of men at our request. There is the first sexual encounter in bed between Halston and Ed; Halston sniffing poppers and getting fucked bent over a barrel at NYC’s The Trucks; Halston getting a handjob in a stairwell while his slightly unstable lover, Victor Hugo (played by Gian Franco Rodriguez), growls dominantly in his ear; and Halston watching as Victor fucks a stranger at the opening night of Studio 54, his expression as opaque as the black sunglasses he’s wearing.
“All the sex actually looks very good, real and authentic,” she says. “I love the lighting and the guys are hot. There’s a lot of passion, which is often missing—not to mention the rarity of gay sex scenes in shows or movies.
“The only giveaway that they’re actually faking it is people tend to overact when they’re “having sex.” And I could definitely see them overacting in these clips. There’s not usually that much movement when people are actually fucking!
“And the Studio 54 scene looks so fake and uncrowded, but I love the concept!”
In mr. Pam’s professional opinion, here are the rankings for the four sex scenes found in five episodes of Halston:
1. Getting fucked at The Trucks
2. Getting fucked in the bedroom
3. Watching fucking at Studio 54
4. Getting a handjob in a stairwell
