Sex Education Intimacy Workshop Involved Watching Snails Mate, Says Simone Ashley

On the Los Angeles Times' podcast "The Envelope," Simone Ashley shared some strange, behind-the-scenes info about how the cast of Sex Education prepared for sex scenes — and the snails they used in the process.

"In Sex Education, we had like a sex intimacy workshop where we completely broke the ice and you know, anything that was said, it was the most embarrassing or the most vulnerable, but it was a safe, intimate space," said Ashley. "And we explored the movement of different animals to kind of portray different paces or different sexualities or how sensual something could be. For example, we look to how snails mate, and when snails mate, they actually produce a plasma that intertwines."

Ashley explained that observing how snails mate helped the cast understand certain sex scenes.

"So if it was a really sensual, slow kind of scene, we'd be like, oh, it's like the snail. And it's super like the plasma, like falling like honey," she said. "So we would make it about that or how dogs mate or chimpanzees mate."

"It's very like fast-paced and a different kind of style. So this kind of scene, we're going to make it very funny and quirky and just like silly and like, let's think of like, this animal."

But Ashley's fun with snails seems to have come to an end, as the actor, who now stars on Bridgerton, will not be returning for Season 4 of Sex Education.

"I'm a Bridgerton girl now," she told U.K. talk show This Morning back in April.

Sex Education is available to stream on Netflix.

People are talking about Sex Education in our forums. Join the conversation.

Deena ElGenaidi's writing has been featured in Nylon, MTV News, Insider, The AV Club, and more. You can follow her on Twitter @deenaelg.