Taylor Hackford Talks Directing Wife Helen Mirren In Sex Scenes

Helen Mirren stars as madam of a brothel in the upcoming 'Love Ranch,' directed by her husband Taylor Hackford. Hackford tells Movieline.com that his wife, who recently went completely topless in New York magazine, was a pro and it was her costar he had to convince to let go in the sex scenes.

Here is an excerpt from the interview, read the whole thing here.

At the beginning of this film, Helen was courageous enough to let me make her look tired -- to make it look like she was shut off emotionally and romantically. She's dried up. And over the course of this movie she blossoms. Part of that is hair and makeup and costume, but a lot of it comes from the actress allowing this thing to evolve. You start to see her become younger. You start to see her become more feminine. That's great. But when you come to a moment where you have to see her and Sergio get it on, it's really important that it works. They understand as actors.

To me, it wasn't my wife I had to worry about; Helen will go for whatever. It was Sergio. Think about that: He's acting with an actress who's married to the guy behind the camera. He's got to put his hands on her breasts. He's got to the things that make it real. I was just saying to him, "Listen, this is an acting scene like any other acting scene. If you don't do it correctly, then we're going to be doing it over and over again, and it's going to be ugly. Make it work. Don't worry about me, because I understand what you're doing. And you have to go for it." Otherwise, if you're bringing your own personal life into it, you're going to fail.