Dame Emma Thompson has urged women to accept their bodies, as her new film explores taboos relating to female sexuality.
In Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Dame Emma plays Nancy Stokes, a 55-year old widow who hires a male sex worker to fulfil her aim of having an orgasm.
Created by screenwriter Katy Brand and director Sophie Hyde, the film tells the story of a retired RE teacher who spent her entire 31-year marriage un-satisfied, and her decision to do something about it.
Speaking at a press conference for the movie at the Berlin Film Festival, she spoke about the stigmas women face over their bodies and sexuality.
“It’s not considered important that we have pleasure,” Dame Emma said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I’m sure I’ve met people who’ve had that experience, some of the young women I know say they were 30 when they first experienced it.
“But I don’t think we talk about it, and I also think we’re kind of dishonest about it.”
A particularly poignant scene in the film is when Dame Emma, 62, stands naked in front of a mirror, and the actress said that accepting her body in this scene was “the hardest thing” she “ever had to do”.
She urged women to do the same and to “just accept” what they see in the mirror.
She said: “If I stand in front of a mirror, I’m always sort of pulling something, or I’ll turn to the side, I’ll do something. I can’t just stand there. Why would I do that? It’s horrifying.
“But that’s the problem, isn’t it, that women have been brainwashed all our lives to hate our bodies.
“That’s just the fact, and everything that surrounds us reminds us how imperfect we are, and everything is wrong with us.”