It’s very artistically shot and not in any way explicit, but the moment between Sally Hawkins’ character and the amphibian she is helping is still very striking.
So how exactly was it made?
The fish-man is played by Doug Jones, who has previously worked on the Hellboy movies, Pan’s Labyrinth and Mimic.
Speaking to Thrillist last year, Jones said: “We did all the non-verbal things people do to fall in love. That’s all been building up to this unsupervised time together, so of course it’s a love that can be consummated finally, which was new and different for me.
“Guillermo [Del Toro, director] kept stressing to me, ‘You’re the romantic leading male of this movie.’ And I kept thinking, ‘In a fish suit?'”
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He said of the scene: “I can’t imagine doing that now with anyone else but her [Sally Hawkins].
“She is magical. The minute the camera rolls, the entire crew goes away and you’re just standing there with her and you’re isolated in this real moment that’s happening in front of you. I was so blessed to be invited into that moment.”
He added: “We would stay standing in that embrace because it felt protective and right. It was a beautiful thing to film.”
He also told the New York Daily News about the practicalities of shooting the moment when the entire bathroom is flooded.
“When she stuffed towels under the door, turned the faucets on and flooded the room, we were in the tank,” he explained.
“That was about eight feet of water, so we would have to gather our air at the top while treading water and then dive down to start the scene. Speakers were underwater with Guillermo on microphone, giving us very specific instructions: things to work out with camera angles, what looks best.
“It was like a dance underwater. That’s what it felt like, just beautiful.”
Vanessa Taylor was the co-writer of the screenplay, and told SheKnows that Elisa’s [Hawkins] desire was very important.
“When I first talked to Guillermo about the idea of a sex scene, I said, either we believe she wants to have sex with this fish-guy or we don’t,” she recalled.
“If we don’t believe it, we’ve got a huge problem. I didn’t have a way of knowing if it was going to work, but I thought, wow, if it doesn’t, we’re all in big trouble!”
Sure enough it did work – and The Shape of Water has received monumental praise.
It’s in cinemas now.