'Don't you dare': Why Kate Winslet refused to have her sex scene edited in Mare of Easttown

Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce in Mare of Easttown. Photo / HBO

Mare of Easttown has been praised for its grit and realism throughout and a large part of that is down to Kate Winslet's character.

In a New York Times interview which dropped just hours after the series finale aired, Kate Winslet spoke about her portrayal of Detective Mare Sheehan.

The actor insisted the director Craig Zobel keep her character realistic and pushed back if that wasn't happening. When Zobel assured her he would cut out "a bulgy bit of belly" in her sex scene with Guy Pearce, Winslet objected, saying "Don't you dare!"

The 45-year-old actor explained, "I hope that in playing Mare 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 they have done because there are clearly no filters.

Kate Winslet: "I think my days are getting a little bit numbered of doing nudity." Photo / HBO

"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. I think we're starved of that a bit."

The Oscar winner also recalled sending back a retouched promo poster, telling the outlet she knows "how many lines I have by the side of my eye" and asking the designers to put them back in.

Winslet told the publication that people watching may say, "Oh my God, how can she let herself look so unglamorous", but she wanted to reflect her character's burdens.

Winslet may not be seen in many more sex scenes.

"I think my days are getting a little bit numbered of doing nudity," she told the Times. "I'm just not comfortable doing it anywhere. It's not even really an age thing, actually. There comes a point where people are going to go, 'Oh, here she goes again.'"