Angelina Jolie explains 'absurd' sex scene with Brad

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Photo / Getty Images

Angelina Jolie found filming her By the Sea sex scene with her Brad Pitt more "strange" and "absurd" than usual, because she also had to direct and act in the revealing shot with her husband.

The Tomb Raider star is no stranger to love scenes on camera, but when it came to stripping off with her longtime partner for a steamy bathtub sex scene, Jolie found the experience a bit harrowing.

"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," she admitted to Entertainment Weekly.

A scene from By the Sea, an American drama film written and directed by Angelina Jolie. Photo / AP

"And in front of a bunch of other men with cameras.

"Love scenes are strange anyway, but when you're doing a love scene with a person that you really have sex 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."

Luckily, Pitt's instinctive protective skills came into play as soon as she called "cut".

"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."

To add more pressure to the sex scene, Jolie admitted she felt insecure about baring nearly all after undergoing a preventative double mastectomy in 2013, but she hopes the scene will be inspirational to women who have gone through a similar medical drama.

"The surgeries still allow you to be a woman," she explained. "I hope other women - anyone who is worried about those issues and how your body can feel or look - can see that through the scene. I'm happy that will be in there if that answers something for them."

- WENN