Let's Talk About Sex

Trouble With Sex may mark Renee Weldon’s first major film role, but by her own admission, it’s a fantastic way to kickstart a big screen career. Michelle, the slinky and endearingly predatory heroine of this romantic drama, is nothing less than a dream part; a thoroughly feisty femme belonging to the noble tradition of bad colleens established by Maureen O’Sullivan’s indecent removal of stockings in The Quiet Man.

“I was really thrilled to play her,” explains Renee. “Michelle was such a cool, modern, ambitious character - completely independent and very much her own woman. I was just so glad to get hold of the script.”
Renee equally relished the opportunity of getting back to Dublin for the shoot. Following a stint on the boards of the Donmar Warehouse, she based herself in London some six years ago, but has continued to commute between the capitals for television work (On Home Ground, Making The Cut, Out Of Time and that one-time national service for Irish actors, Ballykissangel) and notable theatrical productions of Country, Dancing At Lughnasa, Juno And The Paycock and Much Ado About Nothing.
Despite her apparent professional dexterity, Trouble With Sex posed certain unique challenges, not least of which was singing a karaoke version of Crowded House’s ‘Fall At Your Feet’ before a live audience.
“I was a bit over-awed by the occasion,” recalls Renee. “I normally am the girl who’ll actually jump up on stage when everyone is shouting for a song, but it’s a bit different when you’re singing a Crowded House song in front of someone from Crowded House and on film! But I quickly got into it and went from being really reverential towards the material to taking total charge; telling him to slow down or speed up with his own song.”
If that wasn’t quite nerve-wrecking enough, Trouble With Sex - as the title may well indicate - demanded scenes of an intimate nature between Renee and co-star Aidan Gillen. “Amazingly, I was totally cool with the sex scenes,” Renee explains. “Fintan (Connolly, the director) was really reassuring and we talked about the film being a love story and Michelle being a really sexual entity so it was easy from there. We also left those scenes until last so I had gotten to know Aidan pretty well by then. Our only real problem was getting fits of the giggles. When we were shooting scenes in a little cottage the mic started picking the whirring noise of the camera, so Owen Mc Polin (Trouble With Sex’s cinematographer) had to film from under a duvet. It was totally bizarre doing a sex scene while reading gestures from a big blanket with hands sticking out.”
Renee’s crowning achievement in athleticism for Trouble With Sex, came not in the bedroom, but in a rainy tunnel wherein her memorable alter-ego teeters home in fuck-me heels after a night on the triple vodkas. “Well, it was easy for me to relate to Michelle’s drunkeness because I’m the type who’s floored after one glass of wine! But let me tell you slip-ons are not intended for rainy nights. For four takes I kept staggering at exactly the same moment. So from now on, it’s sneakers for running about and slip-ons when someone is driving you right up to your chair so you can just sit and look pretty in shoes.”
Sounds like sage advice to me.

The Trouble With Sex is released 'May 6th.