You know the one.

Off Campus team discusses the making of THAT ‘iconic’ Hannah-Garrett scene

You know the one.

By Samantha Highfill

Samantha Highfill

Samantha Highfill is an executive editor at **, where she’s worked for more than 12 years covering television.

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May 13, 2026 2:22 p.m. ET

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Belmont Cameli as Garrett and Ella Bright as Hannah on 'Off Campus'. Credit:

Liane Hentscher/Prime

- *Off Campus* showrunner Louisa Levy and stars Belmont Cameli and Ella Bright discuss bringing one of the most "iconic" book scenes to life.

- "We had to do it, and we had to do it justice," Levy tells EW.

- Bright reveals why the scene is one of her favorites from the season of the Prime Video series.

**This article contains spoilers from season 1, episode 4 of *Off Campus*, "The Breakup"**

When it came to adapting Elle Kennedy's novel *The Deal*, *Off Campus** *creator* *Louisa Levy knew that fans would have expectations, particularly surrounding certain moments of Hannah (Ella Bright) and Garrett's (Belmont Cameli) love story.

From the jump, there was one scene Levy knew they had to figure out, and it had everything to do with mutual masturbation. "It's an iconic book scene, we had to do it, and we had to do it justice," Levy tells **. "It's so important to have in there. But it's not easy."

The scene's iconic not just because it's sexy. It marks a very important moment for Hannah, who's struggled to orgasm ever since she was raped in high school. Thinking that her relationship with Justin (Josh Heuston) is about to take the next step, she turns to her friend Garrett for help. She figures if she can orgasm with him, she'll be fine with Justin.

Belmont Cameli as Garrett and Ella Bright as Hannah on 'Off Campus'.

But when being intimate together is a bit much for her, Garrett suggests something else.

"We had a lot of reverence for that scene, and we were really careful and intentional about it," Cameli tells EW. "We talked about it so many times before filming it. And then on the day, there's a bunch of little chapters to that scene because when Hannah walks in the door, wearing her dress and Garrett comes down in the stairs, everybody's like, 'Okay, they're gonna have sex now. It's gonna be awesome.'"

The dress in question is one Hannah borrowed from her best friend, Allie (Mika Abdalla), and one that ... isn't quite right for the moment. "It's her way of trying to seem that she's so chill about what's going on," Bright says. "She's wearing the most uncomfortable dress you've ever seen in your life."

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But the dress comes off almost instantly once they're upstairs — and not in a sexy way, but rather in a making-her-more-comfortable way that ends with Hannah in one of Garrett's T-shirts.

"It surprises both the audience and them because you go into that scene being like, 'Okay, you know, I think we all know what's gonna happen,'" Bright says. "They've organized this deal, and she's gone to his house at the time that they organized, and then it kind of ends in a way that neither of them expected."

Once upstairs, things shift. "As soon as they get in the room, they're in two completely different spaces," Cameli says. "So to arrive them in a place where they can be intimate in that way to have that moment, and then for Garrett to offer for them to do it themselves, for me, the way I played it was it was really about a friend helping a friend."

The result is what Bright calls one of her favorite scenes. "That scene is so emotionally driven," she says. "When I tell people that's actually one of my favorite scenes, it truly is. The dancing before is one of my favorite moments of the show. And I think the trust between those characters and how comfortable they are with each other is so beautiful. It is rare to see an intimate scene where the characters don't touch."

Belmont Cameli as Garrett and Ella Bright as Hannah on 'Off Campus'.

Liane Hentscher / Prime

And it's a scene Bright had been thinking about since the moment she auditioned and Googled "iconic moments" from the book.

"Me and Louisa had a call before the chemistry reads and she told me about all the intimate scenes and how they progress the storyline because I truly believe that Hannah and Garrett's story can't be told without them," she says.

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Levy adds that there's a reason there's no nudity in that scene. "We don't show anything because that's not what the scene's about," she says. "We do have nudity in our show, that's not outside of the realm of what we do, but that scene was not about it. That scene was about vulnerability. And so it's important to show that they are fully naked with each other, but it was not important to see what that looks like."

*Off Campus* is streaming on Prime Video now.

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