Sterling K. Brown and Ryan Michelle Bathé have been married for almost 20 years, and there’s almost nothing that the superstar couple is shy about sharing.
In a new episode of Keke Palmer’s podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer, the actors dish on the ups and downs of their decade-plus-long relationship, the breakups and makeups, and the hilarious quirks that go hand-in-hand with a relationship in the spotlight — including watching the other in some intimate love scenes with other stars.
When asked by Palmer how they dealt with the aforementioned situation, Bathé quipped that Brown “has always been an exhibitionist before we even started dating, so that was in the sauce.”
“I am not an exhibitionist but I have accepted that about him,” she continued. But Bathé recalled that the “only time” her husband had an issue with her involvement in a sex scene came when she starred opposite Boris Kodjoe in the 2007 film All About Us.
“I was in a small, independent film…it was basically a two-hander with just the two of us. We had a sex scene,” Bathé explained before Brown interrupted to note that “within two months of her booking this job,” the First Wives Club star had revealed to him that Kodjoe is her celebrity crush.
Recalling the experience of filming the intimate scene, Bathé admitted that “it was not what I thought it was.”
“It was not fun — it was awful. He’s married to Nicole [Ari Parker], and now I got to stand next to this Adonis,” she told Palmer. “As a woman, you’re used to working with guys who are shorter than normal, and they may be cute, but you’re like, ‘I can hang’ [Then] in walks the sun! I’m a human, I’m just a normal human. I was like, is this what it’s like? Who the f**k — motherf**ker, who the f**k are you?”
Bathé went on to extol Kodjoe’s virtues, noting that he can speak German and Italian and “spout some Shakespeare.”
“Then he’ll be like, ‘And you know I was a tennis player, and are you ready to do the sex?’ No, motherf**ker!” Bathé quipped. “So we’re in this house in the Valley in the summertime and… I remember standing in that bathroom for 20 minutes, inspecting every single part of my body to tell myself it’s not that bad, you’re not that ugly, you’re not that horrible. All it is is 40-whoever minutes of your life — just pretend that you got this.”
Delivering his perspective, Brown recalled that he had “one request” from his wife. “I always say, ‘Look, don’t embarrass the family. Make it look like you know what you’re doing in these streets.’ Right? I had one request. I was like, ‘You’re going to wear the Band-Aids on the nipples?’ She’s like, ‘Yes,'” the American Fiction star shared.
“So I call her afterward, I go, ‘Hey, how did it go?’ She’s like, ‘Well, it was fine. It was very humid in the room…I tried to put the Band-Aids on and the Band-Aids wouldn’t stick. The Band-Aids wouldn’t stay.’ And so I was like, ‘Oh, so you had naked t*tties on Boris’ chest?’ She said, ‘Not on purpose, but I did have naked t*tties on Boris’ chest.’ And I was like, ‘Oh…'”
Regardless of how they felt before the scene was filmed, both actors agreed that the scene came out “very charming” in the end.
“I think because I’m an exhibitionist, it’s like seeing my wife… I find [that] when she gets to be sexy and people see her sexy, I’m like, she comes home here,” Brown concluded.
It’s unsurprising that the couple has such a healthy outlook on their relationship and careers after almost two decades together. When the Boy in the Walls star spoke with 360aproko last June, she opened up about life with her husband and their sons, Andrew and Amaré.
The couple had recently celebrated their anniversary and Bathé reminisced about their big day.
“The best thing about it was the food,” the actress recalled with a laugh. “Because, you know, OK look, can I just say sometimes you go to weddings and you get the winner-winner chicken dinner and you’re like, ‘I pay. OK, it’s fine.’ But I wanted people to remember their experience — their culinary experience. So I was happy about that. The food was good.”
She credited having a partner-in-crime in Brown to take on Hollywood with.
“This is what he loves to do, but he is not of it. He will be the first person to be like, ‘Get them sliders. Let’s go home,'” she said of the Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul star. “But there’s a picture of us somewhere where we’re huddled in a corner eating sliders on our way home. But you know, he loves it and he loves being around people. But he’s also like, he doesn’t have to be. He doesn’t have FOMO. He’s the opposite of FOMO.”
Watch Brown and Bathé’s full appearance on Baby, This Is Keke Palmer below.
