Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan star as paleontologist and pupil in Ammonite, and the film follows their love story set against the backdrop of 19th century England. Any time there is a same-sex love scene involving two A-listers, there’s a lot of interest, and the pair break it and other parts of the film down with The Daily Beast.
Winslet says of the difficulty in broaching the subject: “It’s such a difficult question. So often when I read about other LGBTQ films, I will get so irritated when they say ‘the controversial sex scene,’ or ‘the much-talked-about sex scene,’ or ‘the highly anticipated intimate love story between two women or two men.'”
She continues: “It drives me f***ing crazy because we don’t do that with heterosexual love stories at all. Like, at all. We don’t do that. So, in a way, are we all then culpable? Are we all then somehow culpable that we have allowed these heterosexual stereotypes to just lead the way? I guess maybe we are. I don’t know! I’m still even asking those questions.”
Ronan says: “There’s so much to be talked about with the film and the relationship between these two people. And that’s a part of it, but it’s not everything. But I do also get that the conversation needs to be had quite a bit more before we can go, 'Alright, two women having sex, like we’ve, we’ve seen it.’ It’s not completely normalized yet, but hopefully we’re getting there.”
Meanwhile, Winslet is also celebrating another milestone. The Oscar winner told ET of breaking Tom Cruise‘s record for holding her breath while filming underwater in Avatar 2: “It's so funny because I don't really read reviews or media things. I'm not on Instagram, like I'm just completely disconnected from that part of my life. So all of this week and the week before, I've had people coming up to me at work saying, 'Oh my God, like seven minutes and 14 seconds? Like, what?!’ And I'm going, 'What? Hang on, wait a minute. How do you know that?'”
Winslet and Ronan's romantic drama Ammonite hits theaters Nov. 13.