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Actress Margo Stilley speaks out after graphic real-life sex scenes in movie
More than two decades after the release of 9 Songs, the 2004 British film often cited as the most sexually explicit mainstream movie ever made in the UK, American actress Margo Stilley says she has no regrets.
The California-born star, now 42, made her feature film debut in 9 Songs, directed by Michael Winterbottom. The film followed the passionate relationship between Lisa, an American exchange student, and Matt (played by Kieran O’Brien), a British scientist she meets at a rock concert.
While 9 Songs premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, it stirred immediate controversy for featuring unsimulated sexual acts between its two leads. Despite the uproar (and a modest 23% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes) Stilley has continued to defend the project as a bold artistic statement about intimacy and connection.
“It was About love and sex, not porn”
In a 2008 interview with the Irish Independent, Stilley recalled the harsh public reaction she faced after the film’s release. “When I did press conferences, people would shout abuse at me,” she said. “I was called names, a ‘wh***,’ a ‘sl**’, because of the sex scenes.”
But Stilley pushed back against suggestions that she had been exploited by the director or misled because she was a first-time actor. “People forget that I developed the character,” she explained. “The movie was 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. I’m proud of it.”
A career beyond controversy
Despite the notoriety surrounding her debut, Stilley insists the role didn’t define her career. “I honestly can say it hasn’t affected me,” she told reporters. “I don’t get seen only for roles as women who have sex a lot.”
Following 9 Songs, Stilley continued working steadily in film and television. Her more recent credits include the English-language crime thriller The Host.
In a 2024 interview with LADbible, the actress revealed that her name was accidentally removed from the credits of 9 Songs, a decision she made informally during its private Cannes screenings. “I said, ‘Oh, just put me on as Lisa,’” she recalled. “Then the press got wind of it, and The News of the World even ran a hotline for anyone who had information on who I was. I realized I’d caused quite a ruckus but it turned out to be marketing genius.”
From North Carolina to London
Before acting, Stilley worked as a model, leaving her home in North Carolina to pursue opportunities in Milan before eventually relocating to London. There, a modeling contact helped her land her first on-screen role (in an Israeli advertisement) setting the stage for her unexpected rise to cinematic infamy.
Though 9 Songs remains one of the most controversial films in modern British cinema, Stilley’s reflections today are marked not by regret but by perspective. “It was my first film,” she once said. “And I’m still proud of the work we did.”