Kate Winslet refused to let her body be edited for Mare of Easttown sex scene

She told the director: ‘Don't you dare.'

Kate Winslet has shared in an interview with The New York Times that she refused to have 'a bulgy bit' of her belly edited out of her characters sex scene with co-star Guy Pearce.

Starring in HBO and Sky Atlantic's new drama Mare of Easttown, she plays, Mare Sheehan, a detective sergeant in her 40's attempting to solve a murder in a small town in Pennsylvania.

When director Craig Zobel informed Winslet that he intended to alter her body during the post-edit, she said that she simply replied: 'Don't you dare.'

Explaining the logic behind her decision, Winslet shared that she wanted her character as relatable as possible.

She said: “I hope that in playing Mare [Sheehan] as a middle-aged woman — I will be 46 in October — I guess that’s why people have connected with this character in the way that they have done because there are clearly no filters.”

When asked to describe her character, Mare, the Oscar winner shared: “[She's a] fully functioning, flawed woman with a body and a face that moves in a way that is synonymous with her age and her life and where she comes from."

Touching on the scarcity of realistic body image portrayal in Hollywood productions - especially over a certain age - she said: "I think we're starved of that a bit."

This isn't the first time Winslet has advocated for realistic beauty standards - in 2015, when she partnered with L’Oréal, she ensured her contract stated that her photos couldn't be edited or retouched.

Our former cover star, Jameela Jamil, also asked not to be retouched on our shoot, and spoke candidly about it during her interview.

Keen to watch the TV programme yourself? It ended last Sunday, but with a score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes review platform, it might just be worth catching up on. Available on HBO and Sky now.

Reporting by Esther Olupona