The making of the movie Ammonite has led to Kate Winslet looking back at her sex scenes in other films with different eyes. In conversation with Entertainment Weekly , the actress wonders if she was not being too serving and accommodating.
In Ammonite , Winslet plays paleontologist Mary Anning, who begins an affair with a young woman (Saoirse Ronan) whom she has to care for.
Winslet says she wanted to shoot an important intimate scene for Ronan’s birthday. “I wanted it to be a beautiful memory for her in her film life, no matter what the scene would look like. I knew it would be beautiful because of the equal experience we would share,” said the actress.
The scene was shot only by female crew members, and Winslet and Ronan filled in the intimacy themselves, without rehearsals. “I could feel that Saoirse and I had the same ideas about what we wanted to show with the scene.”
After she saw the scene again, Winslet had mixed feelings. “I was almost a little angry with myself thinking about how I performed earlier intimate scenes in my career as a woman.”
The actress emphasizes that she never felt forced, but says she realizes that most sex scenes are played from the perspective of the man, in which the woman is “taken along” in some way.
According to Winslet, as an actor you often do not doubt what the director asks of you. The actress believes that her colleagues and herself should keep asking questions about scenes like this, with the # metoo movement in mind. “I feel a responsibility to think about this. Did my thoughts come from me in scenes like this, or did I automatically act in a serving and accommodating position?”
Ammonite , directed by Francis Lee, can be seen in Dutch cinemas from December 10.