Kerry Fox has spoken out about how she believes shooting an unsimulated sex scene has influenced her career.
The 59-year-old starred alongside Mark Rylance in the 2001 film Intimacy, which follows a failed London musician who meets up with a woman once a week for a series of intense sexual encounters.
While sex scenes are usually actors, acting... one particular scene depicts Fox - who was in her mid-30s at the time of shooting - giving oral sex to her co-star.
To get specific, Rylance's actual penis can be seen in the film and her co-star takes it out and puts it in her mouth.
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The 65-year-old English actor has since expressed remorse over taking on the role - something that doesn't bother Fox, as she explains how filming the real-life sex scene helped influenced her career.
"As for Mark’s regrets about the film, I suppose that’s the point of taking these risks: you don’t really know how you’re going to respond. You can’t control how it will affect your career, but if you don’t take risks you’re destined for a life of boring work," she told The Telegraph.
"Intimacy was a censorship landmark. I remember Jane Campion, who had just made her film In the Cut with Meg Ryan, was really p***ed off with me that we were able to have such a frank oral sex scene. She said: ‘We had to use a fake one. You got ahead of me there.'"
The New Zealander continued: "Intimacy has definitely influenced my career a lot - not always in a positive way - although in terms of the film area I like working in and my ability to go to any festival I want in the world, it’s helpful.
"But in TV and popular film here in Britain, I simply don’t know where I stand. Because people don’t know what they’re going to get if they ask me to perform for them."
Fox went on to explain how shooting the X-rated film 'is not one of my regrets' but noting how her career admittedly 'went into a big dip immediately' after it was released.
However, she doesn't pin the decline on Intimacy, rather that she had gotten pregnant again afterwards - as well as her age playing a factor in what films she could audition for.
While Fox doesn't hold any regrets - even after her journalist husband wrote how the film had affected him - as mentioned earlier, her co-star certainly does.
Back in 2016, during a Q&A, Rylance was asked why he chose to do the film.
"Intimacy was the most difficult job I've ever had. Hanif Kureishi's work and Patrice Chereau's words convinced me it was a very true and vital story about the difficulties people face finding intimacy in a big city like London," he replied.
"I know Hanif Kureishi's writing couldn't have been more intimate and revealing, but I found the making of the film and the subsequent publicity and personal attacks very, very painful. And I wish I hadn't made it."
As for the oral sex scene in particular, Rylance recalled feeling pressure to perform for the camera.
“It soured me on my life two months,” he said, adding: "At that point I didn’t have the confidence as a film actor to say no. Now I think a lot of actors that people say are difficult are actually just being sensible.”
Topics: Film and TV, Sex and Relationships
Joe Yates