Actress explains why she doesn’t regret real-life sex scene that caused huge public backlash

Unsimulated sex scenes in films aren't for the faint hearted - but Kerry Fox has no regrets about hers.

Fox starred in the erotic movie Intimacy alongside BAFTA award-winning actor Mark Rylance back in 2001.

Based on a book by Hanif Kureishi, the film's synopsis reads: "A failed London musician meets once a week with a woman for a series of intense sexual encounters to get away from the realities of life. But when he begins inquiring about her, it puts their relationship at risk."

As you'd expect from the movie's description, there's a lot of sex in the decades-old film, some of it which was believed to have been unsimulated.

There were rumors at the time of it's release, but French director Patrice Chereau insisted at the time: "Everything was simulated."

However, Fox's husband Alexander Linklater later revealed in a lengthy column for The Guardian that, while most of the sex was indeed an illusion, there was an unsimulated oral scene.

"It wasn't going to be a trick," he wrote. "If Kerry accepted the role, the sex in Intimacy would be far more demanding than the normal perfunctory erotic interlude of most mainstream movies. To some indefinable degree, this sex would be real."

David M. Benett/Dave Benett/WireImage

This reportedly put stress on her co-star Rylance's marriage to Claire van Kampen - according to a 2015 interview with The Wall Street Journal - sparking The BFG star to regret doing the movie altogether.

But Fox has no regrets and described her performance in Intimacy as one of her 'best pieces of work'.

Speaking to the Metro a decade on from the film's release, Fox was asked if she regretted the real sex scene.

Telling the journalist - who had admitted that they hadn't seen the film - to 'watch it', the actress went on: "Then you'd know I absolutely have no regrets and it's one of the best pieces of work I've ever done."

Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic

Elsewhere, in a separate interview, Rylance said he felt pressured to perform for the camera.

“It soured me on my life two months,” he said in a 2016 Q&A.

"At that point I didn’t have the confidence as a film actor to say no. Now I think a lot of actors that people say are difficult are actually just being sensible."

In the wake of the 'painful' publicity that followed the film, Rylance went on to describe Intimacy as 'the most difficult job I've ever had'.