Ruth Wilson said the female-led team behind her new film True Things was able to create “really intimate, interesting scenes” without “showing everything”.
The actress, 40, plays a Ramsgate benefits officer who embarks on a complicated relationship with a stranger, played by Tom Burke, released from prison.
Appearing on Sunday Morning on BBC One, Wilson said having women in the roles of writer-director and director of photography was important given the topics they were exploring.
She also suggested the film was more explicit than many others, despite the camera often moving away during more intimate moments.
Wilson, best known for her roles in Jane Eyre, Luther and His Dark Materials, said: “I always think you can create really intimate, interesting scenes without actually seeing much.
“That’s the beauty of cinema. It is the beauty of being creative. You can create amazing chemistry and tell a story without showing everything.
“And we had Harry Wootliff. She is a female writer-director. Plus, we had a female DP (director of photography). And, actually, having that space when you are telling a very female story, it was essential that we had women in those positions.
“We were being, in a way, sometimes more explicit than other shows are but without showing that; just getting to the truth of what it is to be a women in those moments.”
Based on the book True Things About Me by Deborah Kay Davies, the film explores the power dynamic between Wilson’s Kate and Burke’s roguish Blond, who can be controlling and cold.
Wilson praised the film for dealing with topics that have been made mainstream by the work of Michaela Coel and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
She said: “I felt like we hadn’t seen these stories on screen before, certainly at that time – it was before I May Destroy You, it was before Fleabag – the initial stages of a relationship, which sometimes can feel like infatuation or obsession.”