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- Kate Winslet said she purposely rescheduled shooting the sex scene in “Ammonite” so that it would fall on her costar Saoirse Ronan’s birthday.
- “I just wanted her to have, frankly, a great memory in her film life, regardless of how the scene played out or the movie turned out,” the 45-year-old actress told Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday.
- Winslet, who plays a paleontologist that falls in love with a housewife (Ronan) in the 19th century period piece, said she was confident that they’d have a positive experience filming the scene.
- “I knew that it would be [great] just because of the experience that we would share together. I knew that it would be very equal,” she said.
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Kate Winslet gave her “Ammonite” costar Saoirse Ronan a one-of-a-kind birthday present.
The 45-year-old Oscar-winning actress said she rescheduled shooting the film’s sex scene so that it would land on Ronan’s birthday.
“I just wanted her to have, frankly, a great memory in her film life, regardless of how the scene played out or the movie turned out,” Winslet told Entertainment Weekly on Tuesday.
In the film, Winslet plays a real-life paleontologist named Mary Anning who falls in love with a timid housewife named Charlotte Murchison, portrayed by the 26-year-old “Lady Bird” lead.
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And though the film’s writer and director Francis Lee was “really nervous” about getting a particular no-holds-barred sex scene between the women right, Winslet said she was confident that she and Ronan would have a positive experience.
"I knew that it would be [great] just because of the experience that we would share together. I knew that it would be very equal," she said.
Winslet said that she and Ronan exercised complete control over the scene and choreographed their own movements. The "Revolutionary Road" actress also noted that only women were allowed in the room while they filmed.
Winslet, who said that Ronan is following a "similar career path" to her own, explained that it helped that she and the "Little Women" star were "on the same page" about their overarching vision.
"I just could feel that Saoirse and I had the same ideas in terms of what we wanted to express in the scene," she said, continuing, "the emotional underpinning of the scene, the connection between these two women — which is, of course, more important than anything in any love scene. We were on the same page in terms of that."
After being so involved with the scene from start to finish and never feeling "overpowered or overruled" by her costar, Winslet reflected on her previous intimate performances.
"I almost felt a little bit angry at myself when I thought about how, perhaps, I have conducted my own female self when I participated in intimate scenes in the past," she said.
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During an August interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Winslet said that the sex scene in "Ammonite" made her the "proudest" and the "least self-conscious" she's ever been after filming something so intimate.
"Ammonite" premieres on November 13. Watch the trailer below.