Josh O’Connor says the nude scenes in 'Mothering Sunday' are vital to the story.
Josh O’Connor
There is full-frontal nudity from both Josh and co-star Odessa Young but they were unfazed about stripping off on-screen.
Josh, 31, told Variety: "[The nude scenes] tell so much of the story. They tell stuff that no writer could write dialogue for."
Young added: "I think that we, as actors, get asked to do really weird s*** all the time. And in fact being nude is, like, not weird.”
Director Eva Husson said: "I have a family culture of nudity in the sense that nudity was always something very natural and nothing to be ashamed of. And I try to do that in my films, when I can, when it’s relevant. Just because I do think we’re very touching and beautiful as human beings.
“But I think the male gaze has hijacked nudity in the sense that it makes it more than it is in terms of importance in life I think nudity is also about intimacy and how comfortable you are with your own identity.”
Husson - who is an actor, dancer and choreographer - also revealed that she chose not to use an intimacy co-ordinator for the film’s sex scenes.
She explained: “I understand the need for intimacy coordinators because there has been abuse. [But] I think that for some of us it doesn’t make sense to put yet someone else between us and the actors.”
“For me, the body is a tool, and you choreograph, you work the muscle memory, and then you move on and you work on the more emotional side of things. And I don’t want to have to explain that to yet another person. Believe me it’s tiring enough to have to get things out of your brain to one person so the more intermediaries I have… I just think it’s up to the level of confidence in the director and the level of trust that he creates or she creates with the actors.”