Without the "male gaze". Keira Knightley is ready for sex scenes only with female directors

The 35-year-old star of Pride and Prejudice, Anna Karenina, Pirates of the Caribbean, Atonement, Love Actually and Bend It Like Beckham said one of the reasons for her decision was her reluctance to promote “masculinity.” "look" - in feminist theory, this is the name given to the image of reality from the point of view of a heterosexual man.

“For me there is absolutely no taboo [about erotica], but not with a male director,” she said in an interview with the Chanel Connects podcast. “Part of it is pride, and part of it is the male gaze.”

Since 2015, when she became a mother, Knightley has included a no-nude clause in her contracts. She also reserves the right not to participate in sex scenes if she considers them unacceptable.

"I'm not ready for scenes where everyone is covered in oil and grunting"

The actress says that in principle she is not against sex in films, but it is no longer for her.

Fame came to Keira Knightley after the 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham

"I'm not ready to participate in these terrible sex scenes, where everyone is covered in oil and grunting. I'm not interested. Sometimes I say: yes, in this picture the erotic scene will be in place, and someone should look sexy, but look for "I have a pretty high opinion of myself, and my body has already given birth to two lives, so I just don't want to stand in front of a group of men naked," she said.

Knightley added that she would also like to have a female director in films that speak to women's experiences.

“If this is a story about motherhood, about how extraordinary the female body is, and how you suddenly begin to see yourself completely differently, how changes occur in the body that are even difficult to imagine before motherhood, then I would prefer to explore all this with the director “a woman who can understand that,” she told the Chanel Connects podcast.

“But now I would feel very uncomfortable trying to embody a male perspective,” she added.

Knightley's latest film is the comedy-drama Miss Misbehaving, released last year, about the feminist movement in London in the 1970s, whose participants are trying to disrupt a beauty pageant.

The actress previously said that she forbids her daughter to watch Walt Disney cartoons in which women are depicted in a way that she does not like.

Members of the MeToo movement against sexual violence in film and other industries have raised questions about the ethical treatment of actresses when filming erotic scenes.

Many studios now employ special "sex scene coordinators" whose job is to make sure that the performers in such scenes feel comfortable and are treated with respect.