‘Ladies of London’ Star Margo Stilley Once Said People Were ‘Really Angry’ About Her Role in Sexually Explicit Movie ‘9 Songs’
Ladies of London cast member Margo Stilley is no stranger to controversy.
Stilley joins seven other U.K. socialites in the rebooted Bravo series, which premieres March 5. But years before she launched a career in reality TV, she generated headlines for her role in 2004 movie 9 Songs.
“In the early 2000s, I made the sexiest British film ever made,” she announces in the Ladies of London trailer.
Margo Stilley starred in ‘9 Songs’
Directed by Michael Winterbottom, 9 Songs follows the relationship between a young American woman and her British boyfriend (played by Kieran O’Brien). The movies alternates between scenes of the couple having sex and footage of them attending concerts together by bands such as Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Primal Scream, and Franz Ferdinand. The film is sexually explicit and is the rare mainstream release that features unsimulated sex between the two lead actors.
Unsurprisingly, 9 Songs was controversial upon its release, with many dubbing it pornographic. Stilley, then 21, was a model with no acting experience when she took the role. She took heat for choosing to star in such an explicit film.
“I mean, people were really angry with me,” she said in a 2009 interview with The Telegraph. “When I did press conferences people would shout abuse at me.”
Stilley didn’t see what the big deal was.
“Oh, my God!’ she continued. “You’d think I invented sex! I got told I was a whore and a slut and how could I do it. And what kind of role model did I think I was giving young women? … I mean, please. I didn’t invent sex! There’s a huge sex industry out there that’s worth billions. I just made a film where two people who are in love have sex.”
Future ‘Ladies of London’ star defended her role in the explicit movie
To make the 9 Songs situation more complicated, Stilley initially asked Winterbottom not to disclose her real identity when doing press and instead just refer to her as her character’s name, Lisa. That created an additional aura of scandalous mystery around the movie. Other critics wondered if Stilley had been pressured into going further than she was comfortable with in 9 Songs.
“People ask me if I felt that Michael Winterbottom took advantage of me because I hadn’t acted before, but they forget that I developed the character. I am not at all like Lisa, and I was genuinely shocked by the reaction to the film and, particularly, to my role in it,” she said.
“It was a film about love and sex,” she added. “It wasn’t porn. I mean, I had sex with my boyfriend last night and that wasn’t porn. It was just hot sex! 9 Songs was a real film about love and sex, and I wanted to do that film and I am proud of it.”
In another interview Stilley, who grew up in South Carolina, said she wanted to challenge prudish ideas about sex.
“I suppose coming from a background that tells you, ‘Sex is bad, sex is bad, you’re going to hell, sex is bad,’ and then seeing on the news that the president is having an affair, it’s not really put in a good light,” she told The Guardian. “So I wanted to be part of a film, a beautiful film, about something that should be viewed in a beautiful light. This is a nice thing, it’s fun, everyone does it, it’s great and when it’s safe – and we’re promoting safe sex – and when it’s someone you’re in love with, it’s great.”
Ladies of London: The New Reign premieres Thursday, March 5 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
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