“I didn’t realise I was a prude”: Cara Delevingne on Planet Sex

In Planet Sex With Cara Delevingne, the award-winning actress, model and LGBTQIA+ icon puts her mind and body on the line to try to understand our deepest desires.

Speaking in Cannes at the international TV market Mipcom, Cara admitted the 18SL series challenged her boundaries. “I didn’t realise I was a prude,” she said candidly … until Planet Sex took her to New York to attend a masturbation masterclass. “I went into the masturbation seminar thinking it was going to be a classroom and I’d have a notepad,” she said. “Instead, it was a pink, leather gym mat on the floor, with six people going, ‘Well, take your underwear off. This is the lube.’ I think I’m a pretty hip, young, cool, down-with-anything kind of girl but I was like, ‘Sorry what? Sorry, no, absolutely not, I will not do that.’” But, she adds, “I kind of did everything I felt comfortable doing.”

On a stop in Japan, that included making art from her vagina with Japanese artist Rokudenashiko. Although Cara doesn’t reveal her masterpiece, saying, “My privates stay private,” The Telegraph says, “Truly, that’s the only thing she does keep to herself in this eye-popping documentary. She is admirably, wonderfully frank, game for anything, and inspired casting. I can’t think of another presenter who could carry this off.”

Cara’s journey takes her from a women-only sex club in London to the set of an ethical porn shoot, her first – yes, her first! – Pride festival, and to a research facility in Germany, where she’ll donate her orgasm to science. (Full disclosure – what she’s actually donating is two blood tests. There just happens to be an orgasm in between, the effects of which can be measured by testing the levels of endocannabinoid neurotransmitters – known to increase relaxation and reduce anxiety – in the bloodstream.)

In episode 5, Monogamish, Cara travels to South Africa and connects with Johannesburg polyamory activist and “self-love sangoma”, Muvumbi Ndzalama. “I think I’m one of the few African women that’s polyamorous and open to sharing my story with the world,” Muvumbi says. “I’m a pleasure activist, so it’s important to me that people see how other people are living, so that they can reimagine their own lives.”

Even in a country where polygamy is an accepted practice, that mostly only extends to polygyny (a man having several wives). In contrast, polyandry (where a woman has multiple husbands) remains the subject of much heated debate.

“There’s definitely a lot of ‘slut-shaming’ and a lot of confusion,” says Muvumbi. “There’s a lot of making fun, but I also get a lot of people that resonate with me, a lot of people that say they’re grateful that I’m out here telling and sharing my story, and other people who say they want to experiment with creating polyamorous lives for themselves.”

Also look out for Coconut Kelz in episode 6, Do You Think I’m Sexy?

Cara says early on in the show that she considers herself “one-hundred percent queer.” She’s open about her own continuing journey of self-discovery. “I kind of started as bisexual, and then I was pansexual. I felt like ‘I don’t know what letter I am!…” she says in Planet Sex. “Queer felt fluid and free. It didn’t put too much pressure on anything I was deciding to be… Sexuality is definitely a spectrum, and I feel like mine wavers, but I’m definitely more on the side of women. I like having sex with men; I just don’t date them.”

Planet Sex has drawn praise for its candour and humour, with an 80% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

“We are now, more than ever, living in such an incredible time,” says Cara. “People are becoming more open, but people are also becoming more closed off to things. So this is a great time to do this. I want there to be conversations – not arguments at all, but debate – for people to come out and talk about these things.”

And the critics agree that Cara is just the right person to be talking about them. In their 4/5-star review, The Guardian says, “As the model watches porn and explores the orgasm gap, her wit and warmth make for a fun, female-centric documentary… She is the perfect mix of wit, warmth, intelligence and curiosity. More importantly, she manages to be open and vulnerable – especially about the internalised homophobia and shame she still struggles with since coming out.”​​