‘Women have to perform orgasms’: Emma Thompson gets honest about sex

Legendary actress Emma Thompson says she thinks people need to be more open about sex, especially when it comes to orgasms.

In an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald, the 63-year-old said the taboo topic should be discussed more in order to normalise pleasure, despite the world being “ashamed” and “deeply disrespectful about sex”.

“Here we are having a meal, and we’ll talk about the food until kingdom come, but we don’t talk about sex, or at least we don’t talk about pleasure,” she said to journalist Karl Quinn.

“And I feel it’s a big mistake to cut it so entirely out of our life. I think it leads to a great deal of unhappiness, mental illness, and indeed is part of the problem of violence.”

Thompson’s latest movie, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, about a widowed woman who hires a male escort to achieve her first orgasm, has led to the actress’s honesty on sex, saying women are used to “performing” pleasure.

“Women have to perform orgasms all the time,” she says.

“Maybe you don’t want to make loud noises and thrash about like a fucking electric eel.”

The film’s sex and body positive message has impassioned Thompson, who recently opened up on her own body image issues in an interview on the British talk show Lorraine.

Appreciated the honest conversation between #EmmaThompson and @reallorraine about #womensbodies How society views them; how they are objectified globally and how this eventually makes us dislike our own. I think #Goodlucktoyouleogrande may shake things up for women???????? #lorraine pic.twitter.com/zohJsachA8

— TV Presenter Ria Hebden (@riahebden) June 8, 2022

Thompson said the role was a challenge for her, as she felt her body never “conformed” to Hollywood’s beauty standards, creating image struggles for herself.

The star compared the way she looked at herself, to the way her character Nancy viewed her body.

“I don’t look in the mirror and if I do, I look away. We’re brainwashed from very early on to not see something that we can’t accept,” the actress said.

“When I’m looking in the mirror, I’m always trying to make myself look ‘better’ – turning this way or that, checking out my arse, pulling something in. Simply revealing my utter incapacity to accept my body as it is.

“But in the movie, at that point, Nancy’s body has just given her these seconds of pure pleasure and she is marvelling at it – not ‘it’ as it looks, but ‘it’ as it has become to her. A place she can be happy. A place she can find genuine bliss.”

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is due to be released in Australian cinemas on August 18, 2022.