When it comes to filming sex scenes, any woman would find it challenging to bare all in front of a full set of crew members. And for more mature actors amongst Hollywood’s A-list, Emma Thompson says that the pressure only increases.
The two-time Oscar winner—and hardcore Adele lover—has opened up about how she prepared to film an intimate scene in her upcoming film, Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, during an interview for one of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival’s virtual panels, ‘Cinema Café’.
In the sex-positive film, Thompson plays Nancy Stokes, a widowed teacher who hired a male escort, played by Daryl McCormack, in the hopes of experiencing an orgasm for the first time in her life. To do so, Thompson’s character glances at herself in a mirror and removes her robe, a scene which she says took an abundance of work with McCormack and the film’s director.
“[Director] Sophie [Hyde], Daryl, and I rehearsed entirely nude and talked about our bodies,” she said.
“[We] talked about our relationship with our bodies, drew them, discussed the things that we find difficult about, things we like about them, described one another’s bodies.”
WATCH BELOW: The 2022 Sundance Film Festival’s ‘Cinema Cafè’ with Emma Thompson
While the Love Actually actress spoke of how filming such a sensitive scene was done with care and consideration, she also revealed that it felt “very challenging” to take part in such an intimate scene at the age of 62.
She went on to explain how doing so felt even more difficult given the “dreadful demands” forced onto women to meet certain body expectations.
“It’s very challenging to be nude at 62,” she admitted, explaining how the scene sees her character “stand in front a mirror alone and she drops her robe”.
“Nothing has changed in the dreadful demands made upon women in the real world but also in acting,” Thompson said. “This thing of having to be thin is still the same as it ever way, and actually in some ways, I think it’s worse now.”
However, while Thompson found the process difficult, she revealed that she may not have been able to go through with it at an earlier time in her life.
“I don’t think I could’ve done it before the age that I am. And yet, of course, the age that I am makes it extremely challenging because we aren’t used to seeing untreated bodies on the screen.”
No matter what, there’s no doubt in our minds that any female actor who takes part in any intimate scene should be made to feel just as beautiful as we see them.
