The side of acting that viewers don’t see! When it comes to filming intimate scenes, Bella Thorne tells Life & Style exclusively that things are often “awkward” and “very performative” behind the scenes.

“You’re not really kissing someone like you’re really gonna kiss someone in real life,” the actress, 25, explains, while promoting her latest movie Game of Love. “There’s lighting in certain ways of just like, ‘Oh wait, looks better when you guys put your head like this.’ … It’s hardly like ‘Oh that was fun. Oh, I like that person.’ I think that that that definitely happens but not for me.”

Something gaining steam in Hollywood that the former Disney Channel star is a big advocate for are intimacy coordinators on set. “They’re great,” Bella gushes, revealing that she worked with one on American Horror Stories. 

“You don’t really know what you’re getting your hands into, and it’s great when you have one to add to the table because those are awkward conversations to have when you’re on set dealing with another actor, you know?” she explains. “It is constantly awkward. It’s all very performative too.”

Bella Thorne's Dating History Features Some Famous Faces and 1 Throuple
Luca Carlino/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

When it came to filming Game of Love — the 2022 sequel to her 2021 film Time Is Up — Bella was able to draw from her personal relationship experiences to bring her character, Vivien’s love story to life on screen. Working alongside ex-fiancé Benjamin Mascolo, they split in June of this year, at the time also helped.

“Ben and I were together. So, there was also that real life drawing from — I think that, yeah, that was enough to draw from since we were currently dating at the time,” the Shake It Up alum told J-14. “But yeah, Vivien was a really different character for me. I’m not sure that I always play a lot of, maybe, good girls. She definitely was until she wasn’t.”

Bella also loved getting to revisit this character a second time, which she notes is “more of a TV show thing.” The Florida native explains, “When you get to do it in movies — you get to leave the character and then come back — it’s really interesting.”

Of course, Bella couldn’t help but gush over her “amazing” fans.

“It’s really interesting to see people’s reactions because the movies are different, especially just in genre as well,” she shares. “This one’s much more serious and not thriller based in that way. The response has been amazing. The fans love it and I’m just happy that they love it.”