How long did it take to shoot and did you hit any difficulties?

We shot the film over the course of one long day. We had planned to shoot three hours with each actress but ran into problems with the first section of the day, which was with Denise, who played the second man. Denise had pockets of time over the course of the week to learn the story (the other actresses had about a month), so I was feeling anxious about whether or not it was going to work. We settled in, pressed play on the audio and every time we recorded a section it was out of sync on the monitor. I couldn’t quite believe it. Denise patiently performed the lines over and over again and I think we ended up filming with her for about four hours. By the end of it we were all exhausted, but still had another two actresses to film.

When Isolde, who plays the first man arrived, I was so stressed, thinking that the footage would be unusable that I wasn’t as focused as I should have been. If the morning hadn’t played out the way it did, Isolde’s scene would have looked quite different from the scene you’ve seen.

I went home at the end of the day feeling exhausted, deflated, elated and relieved that it was over. However, the next morning, as I fearfully opened the rushes, there was Denise, not only perfectly in sync, but performing powerfully. It was incredible to watch and I couldn’t quite believe how brilliantly she fitted with the man she was playing. I have no idea what happened in the room that morning – I think the monitor must have been out of sync – but I’m forever grateful for Denise’s patience. She said it was one of the hardest things she’s ever had to do; probably both emotionally and technically.

What do you think we can take away from the film?

I think everyone will take away something different but for me the film is a comment on gender inequality within a capitalist society – buying sex being just one of the symptoms. I think the first man in the film articulates the reality quite brilliantly:

The fantasy I guess… if I’m blatantly honest, was just to go in and have sex with a smoking hot woman and really enjoy it, feel the connection and to almost feel a bit of love but, how was I ever going to get that from paying for it?