An actress has opened up about being "proud" of her real-life sex scenes for a controversial movie.
Margo Stilley, best known for her roles in 14 Days with Victor and The Trip, opened up about her controversial movie, 9 Songs, stating that despite the criticism she received for starring in it, she is glad she did it.
Published in 2004, the movie garnered a lot of attention for its numerous and frankly "boring" sex scenes, as per a reviewer, though people were caught up in the fact that the scenes were real.
At the time, it was dubbed allegedly "without false promise" as the most "sexually explicit [film] in mainstream British cinematic history" as per the Guardian, and with s**t-shaming still very much prevalent in society, Stilley, then-21, was demonized for her on-screen role.
Speaking to the Irish Independent four years after the flick made its debut, she talked about the abuse she'd endured.
"I mean, people were really angry with me," she told the outlet in 2008. "When I did press conferences people would shout abuse at me."
She continued: "You'd think I invented sex! I got told I was a whore and a s**t and how could I do it. And what kind of role model did I think I was giving young women?"
And of course, with her male counterpart receiving little to no criticism for his involvement in the racy scenes, it was obvious that this was yet another societal ploy to continue to oppress talented women.
"I mean, please," she said. "I didn't invent sex! There's a huge sex industry out there that's worth billions. People ask me if I felt that Michael Winterbottom took advantage of me because I hadn't acted before, but they forget that I developed the character.
"I am not at all like my character Lisa, and I was genuinely shocked by the reaction to the film and, particularly, to my role in it," she added.
However, when the interviewer asked the actress what she expected if she was going to "[take] off all her clothes and [have] real-life sex on screen for all of us to see," she hit back: "Oh, come on.
"It was a film about love and sex. It wasn't porn. I mean, I had sex with my boyfriend last night and that wasn't porn. It was just hot sex! 9 Songs was a real film about love and sex, and I wanted to do that film and I am proud of it."
While the movie did not cross borders and earn Stilley global superstardom, it did make her more attractive for other upcoming roles in movies, especially for a young star who had not done any previous acting - besides in 9 Songs, of course.
She went on to star in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People alongside Simon Pegg before appearing in Hippie Hippie Shake opposite Cillian Murphy and Sienna Miller.
She told the Irish Independent that despite the sex-driven storyline in 9 Songs, she doesn't feel as though she's been typecast throughout her career.
"No, I honestly can say it hasn't affected my career. I don't get seen only for roles as women who have sex a lot," she confirmed.