Spoilers for Kingsman: The Golden Circle ahead.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle director Matthew Vaughn revealed how the production filmed that controversial Glastonbury sex scene. Given complete creative freedom and an R-rated setting, you can bet Vaughn would produce something shocking. Especially in an outlandish, over the top franchise like Kingsman. Kingsman: The Secret Service has the highly controversial anal sex joke that comes right at the end, and Vaughn takes it a step further in Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
At the end of the first movie, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) comes across a Swedish princess who's held hostage by supervillain Valentine, played Samuel L. Jackson. The Swedish princess then offers to have anal sex with Eggsy if he manages to save the world. In The Golden Circle, in order to save the world, Eggsy has to plant a tracking device on an intimate area of a villain's girlfriend, Clara (Poppy Delevingne). This leads to a highly graphic shot down and inside Clara's body. Naturally, the scene has been controversial among viewers.
Related: Kingsman 2 Star Defends Controversial Sex Scene
Of course, many wondered how Vaughn and his cast and crew accomplished this shot. In a sit down with Vulture, Vaughn offered a little insight on how they shot what is now known as THE Glastonbury scene. He said:
Well, that’s the beauty of filmmaking, isn’t it? We had to get a lens made, we had to get a camera position dollying very close to someone’s body, but you didn’t want to hurt them by mistake. Having to use Eggsy and then another hand, because it got quite intimate, as you’d say, and making that seamless. It was one of those things that could have been a disaster. In some people’s minds I know that they think it’s a disaster already because they didn’t like it, which is fine and I respect it, but other people do like it.
Egerton expressed his discomfort while filming this scene, too. In an interview with Screen Rant, Egerton claimed that the scene in the first movie was much easier for him as he wasn't actually in the shot. It was a point of view shot, so the cameraman stood in place of Egerton. However, in the second movie, it's much more challenging as Egerton actually had to be in the shot. Egerton went on to say that Delevingne's husband "saved the world" as the hand they used in the shot was the husband's, not his. Despite his discomfort, though, Egerton has gone on to support Vaughn's decision for including a scene like that in the movie.
While controversial scenes like these would not have worked in other movies, it certainly suits the Kingsman universe that Vaughn has built. These movies are satirical, almost-parodies of classic James Bond films in which James Bond always stumbles into situations that allow/require him to engage in sexual intercourse with beautiful women. At least in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Eggsy has an internal conflict, struggling to decide whether he should engage in such an act when he's already in a committed relationship.
Next: How Kingsman: The Golden Circle Sets Up Kingsman 3
Source: Vulture
