Stay ConnectedCherryPicks Presents CherryPop: A Female Focused Podcast
Tune in as your host, Meg McCarthy, is joined by a rotating group of inspiring and talented co-hosts and guests. Together, they will explore how media has culturally impacted women of all ages and gender expressions covering many topics including the female gaze, sex on screen, queer representation, coming- of- age stories, and much more.
CherryPop is back! CherryPop's Season 2 premiere episode is presented by Baby Phat Beauty and features special guest, actor and activist, Amandla Stenberg ("The Hate U Give"). Together Meg and Amandla reflect on the importance of language when navigating and exploring sexuality, unlearning toxic patriarchal programming, and putting an end to female and non-binary pleasure censorship. In addition, Amandla shares her positive experience filming a sex scene for the YA drama,"Everything, Everything" with director Stella Meghie, and her hope to play more queer characters on screen.
CherryPicks is the best place to see what women think about movies, tv, and more. CherryPicks highlights reviews and original stories exclusively from female and non-binary writers. www.TheCherryPicks.com
Follow CherryPicks on Instagram and Twitter. @thecherrypicks
Follow your host Meg McCarthy on Instagram @megjomccarthy
Music composed by Honor Nezzo.
CherryPop is executive produced by Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes, produced and hosted by Meg McCarthy, and edited by In Haus Media
CherryPicks loves Baby Phat Beauty! Baby Phat Beauty provides accessible and efficacious formulas in glamorous components. GLOW UP. SHOW OUT and make your way to BabyPhatBeauty.com.
CherryPicks Presents: CherryPop: Conversations about women and sex on screen.
Tune in each week as your host, Meg McCarthy, is joined by a rotating group of inspiring and talented co-hosts and guests. Together, they will explore how the representations of sexuality, intimacy, and beauty have culturally impacted women of all ages and gender expressions. Season 2 guests include Amandla Stenberg, Herizen Guardiola, Tess Holliday, Richa Moorjani, the creator and cast of the Starz series Run the World, and many more! Our premiere episode drops May 4th with new episodes airing every Tuesday.
CherryPicks is the best place to see what women think about movies, tv, and more. CherryPicks highlights reviews and original stories exclusively from female and non-binary writers. www.TheCherryPicks.com
Follow CherryPicks on Instagram and Twitter.
Follow your host Meg McCarthy on Instagram
Music composed by Honor Nezzo.
CherryPop is produced by Meg McCarthy and edited by Valeria Kohakura and Vanessa Chap
Follow us @thecherrypicks for future updates on podcasts presented by Cherry Picks.
"Society doesn't know what to do with a woman over 50. They certainly don't know what to do with a woman over 50 who is sexy, who's comfortable with her desire, who also has children and doesn't see that as a contradiction." -Beandrea July
This week is the finale of the first season of CherryPop—what a fun ride it's been!
Beandrea curates some of her favorite films about the lives of women of a certain age.
We discuss the limitations of the "Madonna-Whore" binary (F-U Freud!) and how films have kept 50+ women in boxes and how they have also set them free. Beandrea also tells a BTS story about how a story she wrote for The New York Times "The Year Women Over 50 Reclaimed Their Right to Be Seen coincidently assisted a big Hollywood producer in getting investors.
Then we talk to the legendary actor, podcast host and producer Garcelle Beauvais (The Jamie Foxx Show, Coming to America, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) about her new podcast Going to Bed with Garcelle, which takes a candid look at sex alongside her girlfriends and celeb guests. She also gets real about her 30+ year career in Hollywood and the difference between intimacy scenes then and now. And she reveals her secret to longevity in the entertainment industry. Interview starts at 49:00
Movies & Television
Waiting to Exhale
This drama about four women (Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Whitney Houston, Lela Rochon) in Phoenix looking for love was a huge box office success when it hit theaters in 1995. (You've probably seen that gif of Bassett setting a fancy car on fire in her lingerie…Yeah that's from this movie.) Adapted from a novel of the same name from Terry McMillan, the film was directed by Forest Whitaker. We discuss how the pic nails what bad sex looks like in excrutiating detail and get curious about who we are allowed to see in actual sex scenes and who we don't.
How Stella Got Her Groove Back
From a screenplay co-written by Terry McMillan also adapted from another one of her novels, Stella's (Angela Bassett) story of finding love with a man half her age during her Jamaican vacation was a big hit—on the bookshelves and at the box office. We gush over how good the shower sex scene is in this movie (Hello Taye Diggs!) and how well it depicts the mundane and the ecstatic of romantic relationships. We also cannot stop talking about how good Queen Angela is at her craft. Like how has she been this good for so damn long?!
It's Complicated
Nancy Meyers' hit rom-com about an empty nester mother (Meryl Streep) and her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) is a funny and well-crafted story about the possibilities for women of a certain age. We talk about Hollywood's fear of a real woman's aging body and how much of a relief it is NOT to be 20 years old anymore. And of course you won't want to miss those posh Nancy Meyers kitchens that film Twitter is always gushing over.
Book Club
Directed by Bill Holderman with a script co-written by Erin Simms, Book Club is the story of what happens when four friends of a certain age (Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen, Candice Bergen) get inspired by the steamy scenes in the novel Fifty Shades of Grey. We talk about Keaton's androgyny, spanks humor, and why mothers shouldn't have to wait until their kids are grown to have great sex.
Late Night
Late Night stars Emma Thompson as Katherine Newbury, a successful late night talk show host and comedian who has hit a fork in the road in her career. Written beautifully by Mindy Kaling (who also stars) and directed by Nisha Ganatra, we are truly baffled as to why this movie didn't get the box office attention it deserved when it debuted post-Sundance in 2019. We discuss the clever role reversal in Kaling's script that puts Katherine's sex life front and center.
Juanita
The great Alfre Woodard goes on her version of an Eat, Pray, Love journey that takes her far away from home to Montan. There she explores her spirituality and hooks up with a younger man (Adam Beach). We love how fresh this movie and its characters are and revel in how its one sex scene stands out from the rest.
Gloria Bell
Written and directed by Sebastien Lelio (A Fantastic Woman) Gloria Bell stars Julianne Moore as an empty nester mom with a passion for the dancefloor. This critical favorite from 2019 is an absolute delight that we can watch again and again. We discuss how hard it is to make MILF Extraordinaire Moore look "frumpy" and swoon over the aspirational lovemaking on display.
Frankie
This criminally under-rated gem of an indie premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Ira Sachs who co-writes the screenplay with Mauricio Zacharias, the film stars the fabuleuse Isabelle Huppert (Her) as Frankie. Frankie convenes her extended family on a vacation in a quaint Spanish town in the mountains. We discuss the unfair critical reception to the film and how good it feels to be skin to skin with the one you love.
Otherhood
Three friends (Angela Bassett, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Arquette) take an impromptu trip to New York City to reconnect with their adult sons on Mother's Day in this Netflix hit directed and co-written by Cindy Shupack (Sex and the City). We discuss the politics of getting this and other movies like it made in an industry that prizes youth above all else and why that makes bad financial sense.
The Interview
This week, we have a great chat with veteran Hollywood actress Garcelle Beauvais. She got her start as a model as a teenager and from there transitioned into acting. Her first role was in one of the most well-known comedies of the 1990s: Eddie Murphy's Coming to America. Over her more than 30 year career, she has acted in film and television including The Jamie Foxx Show and the upcoming reboot of Coming to America from writer Kenya Barris. We discuss how the industry has evolved when it comes to shooting intimate sex scenes (and how it hasn't) and the importance of not letting people pigeonhole you into one thing. And you won't want to miss her dishing about her steamy new podcast Going to Bed with Garcelle, which was just renewed for a second season by MGM.
Credits
CherryPop is presented by CherryPicks.
Our hosts are Beandrea July (Twitter @beandreadotcom) and Meg McCarthy (IG megjomccarthy).
The show is recorded, produced and mixed by Beandrea July.
Our executive producers are Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes.
Our music is by Jordan Balagot. (Soundcloud jordanbla)
Special thanks to the whole team at CherryPicks.
This week we're taking a mental health break—because This F******g Election! We hope you are taking care of yourselves and your loved ones.
But here are some politics-inspired Phoebe Waller-Bridge clips to send you into a new week with joy. Fleabag, hello!
We'll be back next week with a brand new episode with a very special guest...So stay tuned!
Please note: This was recorded on Friday November 6 before the election was called for the Biden-Harris ticket.
Credits
CherryPop is presented by CherryPicks.
Our hosts are Beandrea July (Twitter @beandreadotcom) and Meg McCarthy (IG megjomccarthy).
The show is recorded, produced and mixed by Beandrea July.
Our executive producers are Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes.
Our music is by Jordan Balagot. (Soundcloud jordanbla)
Special thanks to the whole team at CherryPicks.
This week, we take you behind the scenes for a look at what it really takes to capture intimacy scenes for the big and small screen. Spoiler alert: it's definitely not what you think.
Meet the Intimacy Coordinators Revolutionizing Hollywood featuring Bel Powley
We kick things off with a personal story from co-host Meg McCarthy, who is also an NYU Tisch-trained actor. (She doesn't like to brag but we do!) Meg gives us a firsthand account of what shooting her first sex scene was like on the set of the indie Save the Date, directed by Michael Mohan, which went to Sundance in 2012.
Special Deep Dive: What is Intimacy Coordination and Why Does it Matter?
One of the most heartening and innovative phenomena happening in our currently unfolding TimesUp era is the field of intimacy coordination. These coordinators are responsible for making film and television show sets safe for performers when it comes to the intimate work they do to play their characters. Think about it: we don't expect actors to actually get shot or stabbed in action scenes, which is why there are stunt coordinators and stunt people, but it's only been in recent years that similar protection and support has been applied to the performance of intimacy.
We talk with two of the women helping lead the intimacy revolution in Hollywood:
Alicia Rodis, the intimacy coordinator for HBO, who was first hired by the network to work on the Maggie Gyllenhaal drama The Deuce and now oversees this work for all of HBO's programming.
"You have to name that norm that's been there before you can work against it. And it's the same thing with creating better sex scenes. The patriarchal thing--then you're aware of it, before you can turn it on its head." - Alicia Rodis, Intimacy Coordinator for HBO Studios
And we chat with Amanda Blumenthal, who coordinated the intimate scenes on the first season of another HBO show, Euphoria, the edgy, teen coming-of-age drama that has been renewed for a second season.
"HBO [is] the only studio that requires intimacy coordinators on all of their projects. And it's actually something they've required for a little over two years now. So they were at the forefront of this whole movement [...] I totally thought more were going to go for it after HBO but it hasn't happened yet. But until they decide to do it I think a lot of this is going to start with performers." - Amanda Blumenthal, Intimacy Coordinator
Movies & Television
Save the Date (2012)
Meg's intimate scene debut! You'll have to watch the movie to see it…
Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Bel Powley was 21 years old when she played the 15-year-old Minnie, a teenager growing up in 1970s San Francisco who is eager to lose her virginity.
The Morning Show (2019)
Claire (Bel Powley) and Yanko's (Néstor Carbonell) relationship is an example of what it looks like when consenting adults—who don't have professional power over one another—find love at work during the #MeToo era.
The Interview
"There's something about teenage girls that really scares like the patriarchy. Society wants to pretend they don't exist. And that's why Diary of a Teenage Girl was such a huge moment [...] They are growing little women with all these feelings exploding out of them and we need to talk about it. " - Bel Powley
This week, we chat with the lovely and talented British actress Bel Powley. She has played a variety of American roles in movies including the Apple+ Drama The Morning Show, King of Staten Island, White Boy Rick, and her breakout film role Diary of a Teenage Girl. She talks about the silence around sexuality she felt as a teenager growing up in London and the role earnest men can play in the #MeToo movement. Powley discusses her character Claire's sex scene with Yanko (Néstor Carbonell) that got left on the cutting room floor of The Morning Show editing suite. Plus, we all agree on the greatness of Marielle Heller, writer, director, and actor (check her out in The Queen's Gambit) who directed Powley in Diary of a Teenage Girl.
Credits
CherryPop is presented by CherryPicks.
Our hosts are Beandrea July (Twitter @beandreadotcom) and Meg McCarthy (IG megjomccarthy).
The show is recorded, produced and mixed by Beandrea July.
Our executive producers are Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes.
Our music is by Jordan Balagot. (Soundcloud jordanbla)
Special thanks to the whole team at CherryPicks.
S1 E3: Queer Women are the OGs of the Intimate Sex Scene, with Quinn Shephard
This week, we talk through some of Beandrea's favorite queer films from the last 20 years and give a shout-out the filmmakers behind them. We've said it before and we'll say it again: queer women have been leading the charge when it comes to nuanced depictions of female pleasure on screen for a long time. And they've been doing it on a budget! We look back at some early lesbian movies that take on coming out and look at more recent depictions that focus on teens who know who they are and accept themselves from page one.
The Movies:
But I'm a Cheerleader (2000)
We start our queer cinema journey with longtime episodic director Jamie Babbitt's satirical teen sex comedy, But I'm a Cheerleader, about a gay conversion therapy camp called "True Directions." It is a bonafide cult classic. A young Natasha Lyonne plays Megan, an enthusiastic cheerleader who is forced to reconcile with the fact that she's a lesbian as she falls in love with Graham (Clea Duvall) under the scrutiny of a harsh headmaster (Cathy Moriarty) and "ex-gay" Mike (RuPaul Charles). We dig into the humor, the MPAA rating bias, the failure of white men to get the movie, and celebrate how well the groundbreaking indie holds up in the light of 2020.
The Twentieth Anniversary Director's Cut re-release comes out on December 8, 2020.
The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love (1995, 2005)
Next up is a micro-budget Sundance indie from writer-director Maria Maggenti. Despite their completely different backgrounds, Randy (Laurel Holloman aka Tina from the original L-Word) and straight girl Evie (Nicole Arie Parker) fall in love. We discuss how Maggenti expertly navigated onscreen intimacy in an era when queerness wasn't yet mainstream. The film was re-released in 2005 on its 10-year anniversary.
Pariah (2011)
Then we take a closer look at the Sundance debut of Pariah from writer-director Dee Rees (Mudbound, Bessie, The Last Thing He Wanted). Sadly, it's still one of only a handful of movies with a Black queer woman at the center, but thankfully it's become a recent classic in queer storytelling. Our mama bear energy comes out in full force to protect the film's heroine Alike (Adepero Oduye) when her sensitive poet soul is threatened by a would-be high school romance. We also love Alike's best friendship with Laura (Pernell Walker) and celebrate platonic intimacy between queer women.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)
Nearly twenty years after But I'm a Cheerleader, director and co-writer Desiree Akhavan also takes on teen gay conversion therapy. But this time it's a poignant drama that forces us to confront a hard truth: more than half of states in this country still allow this damaging practice. We discuss the trance-like sex scene between Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Coley (Quinn Shephard, also this week's interview!) and how f-ckin sexy it is for a woman to say what she wants and get it.
Booksmart (2019)
This high school comedy starring Beanie Feldstein (Molly) and Kaitlyn Dever (Amy) is one of the funniest teen comedies we've ever seen. Directed by Olivia Wilde, we geek out over its stellar pro-masturbation stance and the ways it celebrates queer teens without making too big a deal out of it. Make sure you watch the movie so you can howl at how worn out that panda looks!
The Half of It (2020)
Alice Wu has made two fantastic features, Saving Face (2004) and The Half of It (2020), and we have decided that we want many more movies from her. In her latest, we follow Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) as her poetic writing skills get her caught between her would-be friend Paul and the girl they both have a crush on: Aster. We agree 100% about the necessity of taking a dip in hot springs and how sometimes sexual tension is just as impactful as a steamy bedroom scene.
Also check out:
The 200 Best Lesbian Queer and Bisexual Movies of All Time (Autostraddle.com June 2020)
The Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye)
Saving Face (Alice Wu)
Rafiki (Wanuri Kahiu)
Kajillionaire (Miranda July)
The Interview
We are obsessed with actress, writer, and director Quinn Shephard! In our lively and thoughtful chat with her this week, we discuss: the oversexualisation of girls, how she approaches feminine, masculine, and nonbinary gazes in Blame, her 2017 debut feature as a writer-director, and her experience being directed by Desiree Akhivan in The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Shepherd also tells a personal story about the toxic culture of sexual abuse that actresses have to deal with in their work. Time really is up.
Follow Quinn's work @quinnshephardofficial.
Credits
CherryPop is presented by CherryPicks.
Our hosts are Beandrea July (Twitter @beandreadotcom) and Meg McCarthy (IG megjomccarthy).
The show is recorded, produced and mixed by Beandrea July.
Our executive producers are Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes.
Our music is by Jordan Balagot. (Soundcloud jordanbla)
Special thanks to the whole team at CherryPicks.
Crowning the Queen of the Intimate Sex Scene: Gina Prince-Bythewood featuring Sasheer Zamata
Show notes - https://bit.ly/2FIgSdC
This week, Meg guides us through some of her favorite sex scenes from the last 20 years and shouts-out the filmmakers behind them. Even though the characters and stories are diverse in these flicks, we end up realizing they have much more in common than we initially noticed. The common denominator among the filmmakers: taking the time to research and rewrite when putting together a movie that features real intimacy and onscreen character development.
The Movies
Love and Basketball (2000)
At the top of the list is writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood, whom we crown "Queen of the Intimate Sex Scene." We dig into the groundbreaking, boundary-pushing bedroom scenes in her films Love and Basketball and Beyond the Lights. Love and Basketball follows Monica (Sanaa Lathan) and Quincy (Omar Epps), childhood besties whose undying love for basketball causes their own love to bloom.
Beyond the Lights (2014)
In Beyond the Lights, Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Noni, a Rihanna-adjacent pop star who is saved by Kaz (pre-#MeToo Nate Parker), an earnest cop who couldn't be farther from her world and, of course, they fall in love.
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Then Meg and Beandrea take a closer look at the sex scenes in If Beale Street Could Talk from Academy Award-winner Barry Jenkins, who directed and wrote the pic. Here's another set of childhood friends whose love matures as they get older. Fonny (Stephan James) and Tish (Kiki Layne) are goals!
Lingua Franca (2020)
Then we take up the auteur film Lingua Franca from indie writer-director-star Isabel Sandoval. Sandoval plays an undocumented trans woman who works as a live-in caretaker for an elderly woman (Lynn Cohen - RIP legend!) and gets involved with her grandson. We love that this movie is about a character who is a trans woman (and is played by a trans woman who also made the movie) and, most importantly, that the story isn't about gender transition. Trans folks contain multitudes, people!
Atonement (2008)
And last, but definitely not least: the BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning film Atonement, directed by Joe Wright with a screenplay from Christopher Hampton. Meg swoons over the subtleties of the acting performances, the direction, and of course, that stunning green gown. (Also: Beandrea realizes that Saoirse Ronan has been acting since she was a wee little one. Check out CherryPicks' tribute to Saoirse here!)
The Interview
Sasheer Zamata in WOKE. Courtesy of Hulu.
For our interview this week, we chat with the delightful Sasheer Zamata who appears in the Hulu series Woke. We dig into what it was like playing a leading lady for the first time in the Stella Meghie indie film The Weekend (2018), what it was like doing bedroom scenes, and just how amazing "WAP" (and Cardi B's insta) are. She also reminds us that the 1995 film Waiting To Exhale is one to keep coming back to again and again.
Credits
CherryPop is presented by CherryPicks.
Our hosts are Beandrea July (Twitter @beandreadotcom) and Meg McCarthy (IG megjomccarthy).
The show is recorded, produced and mixed by Beandrea July.
Our executive producers are Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes.
Our music is by Jordan Balagot. (Soundcloud jordanbla)
Special thanks to the whole team at CherryPicks.
https://bit.ly/2FIgSdC
CherryPicks presents CherryPop: a podcast about women and sex onscreen. Tune in each week for our deep dives into some of the most compelling portrayals of female pleasure in film and television. Hosts Beandrea July and Meg McCarthy take listeners on a journey to celebrate feminine pleasure across a diverse and wide-ranging collection of films. Together we'll look at how a great sex scene can not only create intimacy and reveal a character to us in a whole new way, but it can also help us make deeper connections in our own lives.
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
Check out the full show notes.
There were so many movies to talk about last week that we decided to make it a two-parter. This week CherryPop hosts Beandrea July and Meg McCarthy are coming back to you this week to talk more about overcoming guilt and shame through two movies in French about characters from the Franco-African diaspora: Atlantics/Atlantiques (2019) and Cuties/Mignonnes(2020). Both are streaming on Netflix.
CREDITS
CherryPop is presented by CherryPicks.
Our hosts are Beandrea July and Meg McCarthy
The show is recorded, produced and mixed by Beandrea July.
Our executive producers are Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes.
Our music is by Jordan Balagot.
Special thanks to the whole team at CherryPicks.
This podcast contains sexual content and strong language and is not appropriate for children.
"I have now talked to my dad about female masturbation—not in an explicit way—but we can say the word 'masturbate.' And that would have not been possible ten years ago." -Karen Maine, Writer-Director of Yes, God, Yes
CherryPop Ep.1: 'Clitoral Stimulation is Part of God's Plan'
Photo: Meme Parhm
Let's talk about S-E-X baby! (In the movies that is…) Welcome to the very first episode of our mini-series on Women and Sex Onscreen! This week CherryPop hosts Beandrea July and Meg McCarthy dive into films that feature a woman protagonist who is rising up against shame and guilt when it comes to her sexuality: Higher Ground (2011), Mustang (2015) and Miss Juneteenth (2020) And we're delighted to have the writer-director, Karen Maine, and star Natalia Dyer (Stranger Things) on to discuss their SXSW 2019 hit coming-of-age film Yes, God, Yes (2020). Other movies mentioned in this episode that are worth checking out: Turn Me On Dammit! (2011) and 20th Century Women (2016).
Check out the complete Show Notes including links to watch the movies discussed in the episode.
CREDITS
CherryPop is a presented by CherryPicks.
Our hosts are Beandrea July and Meg McCarthy
The show is recorded, produced and mixed by Beandrea July.
Our executive producers are Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes.
Our music is by Jordan Balagot.
Special thanks to the whole team at CherryPicks.
Introducing CherryPop: a podcast about women and sex onscreen
Presented by CherryPicks.
Film critic Beandrea July and CherryPicks Director of Production Meg McCarthy are two movie lovers on a mission to find successful representations of female sexual pleasure onscreen. Join us each week as we take a deep dive into the movies that do this well.
Movies from Teaser
Mississippi Masala (TRAILER)
When Harry Met Sally (WATCH)
Pariah (WATCH)
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
