Emma Thompson On Filming Full-Frontal Scene At 62: 'Very Challenging'

KEY POINTS

Emma Thompson said they were entirely nude and talked about their relationships with their bodies before filming the intimate scene
The two-time Oscar winner admitted that even if she struggled with the nude scene at 62, she could never do it before that age
Thompson said she is against plastic surgery because aging is completely normal

Emma Thompson got candid about her experience filming a full-frontal scene at 62.

The two-time Oscar winner opened up on how she prepared for her intimate scene with co-star Daryl McCormack, 29, for their 2022 comedy-drama film "Good Luck to You, Leo Grande." The sex-positive British movie follows a widowed teacher named Nancy (Thompson) who wants to experience her first orgasm. So she hires a male escort (McCormack) to achieve it. According to the "Cruella" star, they were already naked during the rehearsal.

"[Director] Sophie [Hyde], Daryl, and I rehearsed entirely nude and talked about our bodies, 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," Thompson said during a Cinema Café panel at the Sundance Film Festival.

They filmed the sensitive scene in a careful and considerate manner. The "Love Actually" star added that it was "very challenging" due to the demands expected from women in terms of their bodies.

"It's very challenging to be nude at 62," she confessed while recounting how her character just "stands in front of a mirror alone and she drops her robe."

"Nothing has changed in the dreadful demands made upon women in the real-world world but also in acting," she added. "This thing of having to be thin is still the same as it ever was, and actually in some ways I think it's worse now."

Even if she struggled to film the sensitive scene, Thompson said she never saw herself doing the same when she was younger. "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," she continued.

In a separate interview with The Wrap, she opened up about being an actress in her 60s. She admitted that she never considered plastic surgery even if many women her age would opt for facelifts. She described herself as a "card-carrying militant feminist" who didn't want to do what others expected women to do with themselves.

"I do honestly think the cutting of yourself off to put it in another place in order to avoid appearing to do what you're actually doing, which is aging, which is completely natural, is a form of collective psychosis. I really do think it's a very strange thing to do," she said.

"Good Luck to You, Leo Grande" premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival Saturday.