Sheridan Smith will play a porn star in a new TV drama.
Sheridan Smith
The 'Cilla' actress will star as aging adult movie star Jolene in upcoming Channel 4 series 'Adult Material', which will begin filming next year.
The drama will examine how the industry has changed over the years, and writer Lucy Kirkwood wanted to cast Sheridan - who she previously worked with on 2008 play 'Tinderbox' - because she is like an "old-school movie star".
Lucy told The Observer newspaper: "I just think she's extraordinary - I've worked with her before and have the most enormous crush on her."
The writer admitted she was concerned the 'Moorside' actress was a "bit young" for the role but she couldn't imagine anyone better suited to the part.
She added: "In the beginning I worried that she was a bit young for the role, but I also found it hard to imagine anyone else having her combination of soul and really precise technique.
"The character of Jolene is fairly informed by her, so like Sheridan she's warm and rude and funny and sharp."
And Lucy hopes the programme will make viewers reexamine their views about the adult film industry and its stars.
She said: "It's a story about women navigating their way through a difficult and constantly changing world and I hope that if anyone is dismissive of porn actresses at the beginning then they will reconsider that by the end.
"What I would love is for everyone to feel that the industry has been fairly represented, but also that watching it you have been pushed into areas that you might not always want to go."
To research her new project, Lucy spoke with adult movie actors and directors, as well as feminist anti-porn campaigners.
She said: "It's a subject about which I have all manner of feelings.
"It's easy to just get angry about porn and the way in which it affects lives, but I don't think it's very helpful to simply dismiss another woman's lived experience in that way.
"It's one thing to sit in a bar and argue abstractly about how porn affects us and quite another to talk to a woman whose life this is.
"I wanted to look at that sympathetically but not softly. I don't think this is a subject that you can simply take a single strident position on.
"There's a lot to be said about how porn is the product of a capitalist mindset and will always have people who, out of necessity or out of choice, are willing to provide it."
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