Mary Queen Of Scots director Josie Rourke was adamant that the historical epic would be honest about womens bodies and what they do – periods and all.
Rourke has revealed she was fighting for a period in a period movie, as there was disgreement over scenes depicting menstruation and female oral sex in the movie, starring Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan.
The director told The Guardian: We need to show this stuff. It does need normalising. A journalist asked me how hard it was to shoot the scene where Mary has her period, and my answer was, “Not hard at all!”
There were six women in that room, and it was probably the thing that just most easily staged itself. But it does continue to freak some people out.
Rourke stood her ground, and the scene remains in Mary Queen Of Scots – as does a cunnilingus scene, which was choreographed by movement director Wayne McGregor.
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She added: I hope the sex scenes feel truthful and alive. To think in a language of movement helps remove embarrassment, discomfort or shame.
Josie previously told Metro.co.uk that the decision to focus on Marys (played by Saoirse Ronan) face as she is pleasured by Jack Lowdens Henry rather than the act itself was to do with the female gaze and not the potential of an unnecessarily high rating.
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I thought very carefully about that scene and it was nothing to do with the rating, it was to do with wanting to see the pleasure she is receiving and wanting to show that from a female gaze point of view, said Josie.
And she acts it brilliantly, to get what feels like an authentic female orgasm on screen? We need to see her face to do that.
The film tells the true story of the bitter rivalry between cousins Mary and Elizabeth I.
The pair were keen to be friends and allies – however, due to being women in power in an incredible male-dominated world, they both made choices that they hoped would further their own chances at power, using their intelligence as well as their bodies in differing ways to influence those around them.
Mary Queen Of Scots is in cinemas on 18 January.
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