Maggie Gyllenhaal is "really proud" of her sex scenes.
The ‘Deuce’ actress – who has daughters Ramona, 12, and Gloria, seven, with husband Peter Sarsgaard – is happy to flash the flesh on screen so long as she is given the "final cut" of what is seen but rarely asks directors to make any changes.
She said: "I am 41 and I’ve spent nearly 20 years doing sex scenes, intimate ones and unusual ones. I’ve always been really proud of that work.
"I’m happy to shoot almost anything, I’m happy to show a lot of my body, but I want to have the final cut of what ultimately gets shown. And I never in my entire career, except once, asked to have something taken out."
For her role in ‘The Deuce’ – which follows the lives of sex workers in the 1970s – Maggie worked with the wardrobe department to create a barrier from a yoga mat which was "cut into a shape like a giant matchstick" and a pillowcase in order to feel more comfortable during the more intimate scenes.
She explained to Sunday Times Style magazine: "It’s not so much the nudity that bothers me, it’s actually creating a real boundary between me and the actor. They give you things to wear, but they weren’t enough, so we created this thing!"
The second season of the HBO series was directed almost entirely by women and Maggie admitted that was a deliberate move in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
She said: "I think it takes a conscious interest and effort to take a feminine point of view when you are living fundamentally in a masculine world."
Maggie Gyllenhaal ‘proud’ of sex scenes
