Here’s how the Bilquis scene was created on American Gods

American Gods premiered on Starz today, Sunday, April 30, and pulled off a scene that will have everyone talking for quite some time.

Warning: SPOILERS for American Gods season 1, episode 1, “The Bone Orchard” are below.

If you watched the premiere of American Gods on Starz, then you’re probably still wondering what the heck just happened. For fans of the book, which was written by author Neil Gaiman, and from which the show is based, there were many questions on how the show’s producers — Bryan Fuller and Michael Green — would be able to as accurately as possible bring some of the more graphic scenes to the show.

Image Credit: Starz

One of those scenes concerns the Goddess Bilquis, and how she literally devours a man (Joel Murray), through her vagina, during sexual intercourse. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s lay the scene out:

When we first meet Bilquis — an ancient God of love — she is on an internet date, where she meets a man and shyly takes him back to her place. She then begins to make love to the man, and the more they make love, the stronger she becomes. At some point during the heated sexual exchange, Bilquis demands her lover worships her, and he does, after which she begins to absorb the man’s body through her vagina. Yes, that just happened.

Actress Yetide Badak, who plays the role of Bilquis, talked to Cnet, after the show’s London premiere, and described how it all came to be.

"There was an immediate understanding from all parties that this could be seen in a very salacious way. There are so many other things going on, the deep tragedy would be if that was all that was taken away from the moment."

The scene was filmed with a trap door in the bed, which had a “huge bag” underneath it. Murray — who you might recognize from Mad Men, and Badak, had only been acquainted for a very short time before the shoot. Badak says Murray was the perfect partner.

American Gods airs Sunday nights on Starz.