Maggie Gyllenhaal admits directing Peter Sarsgaard in sex scene was 'strange' experience
Maggie Gyllenhaal has admitted directing her husband Peter Sarsgaard in a sex scene for The Lost Daughter was a "strange" experience.
While appearing on U.S. TV show The View, the 44-year-old shared that she wasn't sure about casting her husband as Professor Hardy, who has a sex scene with Jessie Buckley's character Leda, in her directorial debut but eventually came around to the idea.
"I did think at first, 'Maybe it's not a great idea,'" she told the hosts. "And then I was like, 'I've been with my husband for a long time. We've been through so much. I know my husband loves me.'"
Gyllenhaal, who shares two children - Ramona, 15, and Gloria Ray, nine - with the actor, realised that "nobody" could do the scene better than him, despite the experience being "strange".
"The sexuality, it's strange; it's a weird part of our job," she continued. "The thing that makes the scene hot, I think, is that he's hot for her mind. What is sexier than that? He's like, 'I am into your mind'... Really, that kind of sexy is irresistible."
The Lost Daughter, also starring Olivia Colman and Dakota Johnson, debuts on Netflix on 31 December.
