British actress Keira Knightley has stated that she will no longer act sex scenes in films that have male directors.
The 35-year-old actress said her decision stemmed from her own vanity and also “the male gaze”.
Knightley, in a conversation with director Lulu Wang and writer-producer Diane Solway on the Chanel Connects podcast, said: “If I was making a story that was about that journey of motherhood and body acceptance, I feel like, I’m sorry, but that would have to be with a female film-maker. I don’t have an absolute ban, but I kind of do with men.”
The Independent UK reported that the topic of how actors are treated while filming sex scenes has been put in the spotlight in recent years, particularly since the MeToo movement. Intimacy coordinators are now ubiquitously employed on film and TV sets, and are responsible for ensuring actors are not pressured to do anything they are uncomfortable with.
The Pirates of the Caribbean actress continued: “I don’t want it to be those horrible sex scenes where you’re all greased up and everybody is grunting. I’m not interested in doing that.
“I feel very uncomfortable now trying to portray the male gaze. Saying that, there’s times where I go, ‘Yeah, I completely see where this sex would be really good in this film and you basically just need somebody to look hot.’”
She added: “So therefore you can use somebody else, because I’m too vain and the body has had two children now and I’d just rather not stand in front of a group of men naked.”
Knightley and her husband musician James Righton welcomed daughter Edie in 2015 and daughter Delilah in 2019.
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