Jenna Ortega has spoken out for the first time about the controversial sex scene she shared with Martin Freeman in Miller’s Girl.
Although her career started with family-friendly projects, Jenna Ortega has been subtly pivoting her to more adult works such as starring in several Scream movies, the gothic Wednesday, and Miller’s Girl.
The erotic thriller follows a teenage student (Ortega) who tries to start an affair with her teacher (Freeman). The pair share several unsettling moments throughout the runtime, including a sex scene that raised more than a few eyebrows.
While some didn’t understand the scene’s inclusion, Ortega explained why it had to exist to Vanity Fair, “It’s not supposed to be a comfortable movie. It’s supposed to be awful at times.”
She continued, “Art isn’t always meant to be pleasant or happy, and everyone skips off into the sunset at the end. We all have f**ked-up experiences at one point or another.”
One of the biggest issues viewers had with the intimate moment was the large age gap between Freeman, who’s 52 years old, and Ortega, 21.
Freeman took the waves of backlash in stride when the film premiered, telling The Times of London that Miller’s Girl was “grown-up and nuanced.”
He went on to stress the fact that the movie was not condoning such a power imbalance of a relationship, stating, “It’s not saying, ‘Isn’t this great?’ Stories about difficult subjects can be tainted by association. And that’s a shame.”
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Miller Girl’s intimacy coordinator Kristina Arjona also chimed in on the subject during an interview with The Daily Mail.
“There was many, many people throughout this process, engaging with [Jenna] to make sure that it was consistent with what she was comfortable with,” Arjona explained, “Part of my job too is supporting her decisions. I adapt to whatever is the comfort level of my actors, especially on a production like this where there is a large age gap between the actors.
‘I’m hyper-aware of both of my talent and making sure that we’re consistently checking in and that at no point are any of their boundaries being surpassed. And again, making sure – especially with someone who’s significantly younger – that they are giving continuous consent.”
However, despite Arjona’s comments putting some viewers’ mind at ease, her outspokenness about the events on the Miller’s Girl set caused SAG-AFTRA to create new rules which state a coordinator could lose their job if they disclose private information without consent.
“Intimacy coordinators should maintain the confidentiality of an actor’s work and experience in performing highly sensitive scenes unless they have the actor’s permission to publicly share this information,” a spokesperson told Deadline.
“The public release of details about an actor’s scene work or confidences entrusted to the intimacy coordinator without the performer’s consent is unacceptable.”
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