Dame Emma Thompson has said sex should be recommended by the NHS because it’s “so good for you”.
The 66-year-old actor was speaking at a screening of her 2022 film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, in which her widowed character hires a sex worker (Daryl McCormack) to experience pleasure.
Thompson said during the Q&A: “We need to learn about our own response to: what if when you’re unwell, you can’t make connections, but you need sex? You need sex because it’s part of our health plan, if you like. It should really be on the NHS. It should. It’s so good for you.”
Having an active sex life can have health benefits such as improving the condition of your heart, reducing stress and improving mental health, according to the NHS.
Thompson said that, following the release of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande in June 2022, “a number of older friends” had hired escorts, per MailOnline.
The Love Actually star added that she hoped the film could be a “springboard” for wider discussion about the emotional and physical health role sex plays in our lives.
Thompson described the female orgasm as “a beautiful, healthy expansion of your body in a moment of time”.
She added “It’s very good to be able to give yourself an orgasm when you need one. And for women, it is notoriously difficult. In fact, the stats are quite alarming. It really is much harder than you think.
“One of the things that really surprised me when the film came out was the number of young women who told me they’d never had an orgasm,” the star, whose character in the film has never had an orgasm, said.
Thompson, who’s president of the Helen Bamber Foundation that supports survivors of human trafficking, admitted she has “very complicated views about sex work”.
She revealed she and her co-star McCormack, 32, had spoken to a lot of sex workers, who taught him they were “just like accountants” who are “doing a job”.
Thompson said: “Sex workers are a little more vocal now and very strong on what they think needs to happen and they’re the people we need to listen to.”
