If there’s one thing to say about the sexual drama Addicted, it’s that the cast is addicting to watch. Once you see the first steamy love-making scene between married couple Zoe and Jason Reynard (Sharon Leal, Boris Kodjoe) minutes after the opening credits roll, you realize this isn’t a run-in-the-mill movie with a couple of warm bodies getting busy on the big screen, but something more.

There’s sex… lots of sex. And in this era of #LessClassicallyBeautiful, it sure does feel good to see some very classically beautiful men and women doing the grown-up all over the place. And that’s no exaggeration: We’re talking countertops, showers, car hoods, bathroom stalls… Yeah, it’s that kind of movie. 

Long before there was ever a 50 Shades of Grey, there was Addicted, the best-selling erotica debut by Zane. The film, based on that 2001 novel, is a provocative thriller about a successful businesswoman who appears to have it all: the perfect career, the perfect home, the perfect husband and two beautiful children. However, with everything she does have, there’s something she wants more of, something she cannot escape or resist, and that’s sexual gratification. Zoe chases her desires down a rabbit hole leading her into situations that soon threaten everything important to her—even her life.

Addicted is heavy on melodrama, especially toward the ending, when secrets are revealed through the urging of Zoe’s therapist, Dr. Marcella Spenser (Tasha Smith) to reach into her past. Those secrets give way to an explanation of why Zoe suffers from crippling sex addiction, but they never reach far enough to explain why Zoe can’t get that itch scratched. And the soundtrack? For the most part, it plays more to a Harlequin romance than Black erotica.

But kudos are due to director Bille Woodruff (Beauty Shop, Honey). The well-choreographed sex scenes are hot and steamy, and they do a great job of bringing all those women’s fantasies that Zane helped conjure to life with a great looking cast of players. It’s definitely not Oscar-worthy material, but who cares! We did mention Tyson Beckford, Boris Kodjoe, William Levy and Sharon Leal are all oiled up and getting busy all over the damn place, right?

In preparing for the bedroom and shower love-making scenes, Boris Kodjoe says what was most important to him was making Sharon Leal feel comfortable. But was his real-life spouse comfortable? Kodjoe told EBONY.com that wife Nicole Ari Parker has seen Addicted, including all of Boris’ sexier scenes, and is comfy with them too. (Fun fact: Kodjoe does not watch any of her cinematic sex scenes.)

Tyson Beckford revealed that his first day of shooting on set was a sex scene with Sharon Leal. While awkward for him, he says he was able to make it work, even revealing that when he thought he might’ve been getting a little too rough with her, Leal actually told him to get rougher!

While Addicted focuses a great deal on Zoe’s sexcapades with side-pieces Quinton and Corey (William Levy and Tyson Beckford), there’s something to be said for “married sex.” So we asked Tasha Smith—who married businessman Keith Douglas in 2010—to give us some tips on how to keep it hot in the bedroom in order to possibly avoid the pitfalls of dissatisfaction. “Sex will never hurt, honey. Have as much sex as you can,” says Smith. “I just say have sex everywhere that you can, everywhere except an elevator. You just gotta keep it hot!”—Crystal Shaw King