SEX Education’s Gillian Anderson has defended the Netflix show’s graphic scenes, insisting “there shouldn’t be shame”.
The 51-year-old actress plays sex therapist Dr Jean Milburn in the show, which has just dropped its second season on the streaming service.
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The show shocked viewers with an explicit masturbation scene featuring Jean’s son, Otis (Asa Butterfield).
But speaking to Variety, Gillian defended such scenes and insisted it was helping open up a conversation about sex among different generations.
She said: “I’ve always been incredibly open about sex, my sexuality and feelings and talking about stuff and so it’s been quite fun to release that part of me to just talk about anything.
“It’s so nice to be able to give that freedom to people. To feel like – by doing it in a sense – it’s opening up a conversation that shouldn’t have shame attached to it, really.
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“When we did the press for the first season last year there were Polish journalists sitting in front of us saying, ‘You don’t understand, you ARE sex education for us in Poland because it doesn’t exist’, which is on the one hand quite a responsibility and on the other hand, there’s so much information there.”
Gillian has starred in a number of high profile shows including The X Files and The Fall, but Jean marks a total change in direction for her.
She explained: “I play quite serious characters so to play someone who has wacky element to their personality and also struggles a little – even though she’s a therapist – she struggles a little bit with appropriateness, and there’s something really fun about getting to do that.
“She actually takes it to another level, Jean does, she talks about things at moments when even the audience cringes.”
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However, it was almost a role Gillian didn’t accept, as earlier this week she admitted she had originally chucked the Sex Education script in the bin when she first received it.
Appearing on The One Show on Monday, Gillian explained: “I’m not really sure whether I thought ahead. When I first read it, I had not really responded to it.
“I’d kind of put it in the bin, and my partner suggested I take it out of the bin and look at it a bit more seriously.
“And actually when I did I found it incredibly hilarious, and kind of got what it was that they were after.”
Sex Education series one and two is available on Netflix now.
