Sex sells, anytime and anywhere.
While putting sex in pretty much any subject will make that subject a lot more interesting, that doesn't mean everyone wants it.
The same goes to Miller’s Girl, which is streamed on Netflix and other video-on-demand services.
Casting Jenna Ortega as a teenage student who walks into Martin Freeman’s class, the film marks the debut of Jade Halley Bartlett as a director.
The comedy thriller film tells the story about a forbidden lust between Ortega's character and Freeman's character.
And people hates it.
Jenna Ortega casts as Cairo Sweet, a young woman who lives alone in a gothic mansion with six pillars.
Her parents left her there alone with her books and trust fund, and she just turned 18.
Raised to immerse herself in literature, Sweet has never left the town she was living in, and instead, enjoy that lavish lifestyle of the rich.
Sweet's creative writing teacher at school, is Jonathan Miller, played by Martin Freeman, is impressed by Sweet's wide knowledge in literature and her familiarity with Miller's own book, Apostrophes and Ampersands.
She impresses him not only with her knowledge, but also with admiration for his one published book.
Miller, which is said to have a difficulty in his own writing career, finds himself drawn to Sweet's enthusiasm.
The lust between them starts when Sweet writes an erotic short story about a teacher-student relationship, and this excites Miller to the point that he masturbated.
Then, a even deeper connection develops, which further fuel their shared love of literature, but takes a turn towards a secret and inappropriate relationship.
The lines between student and teacher blur as their bond intensifies.
A story is a story, and a film needs a story to tell.
Miller's Girl tries to tell a story, which is a forbidden relationship.
The thing is, Martin Freeman is over 30 years older than Jenna Ortega.
And this creeps its audience, with many people in social media platforms saying that they are "grossed."
Many people criticized, how Freeman, a Golden Globe nominated, recipient of Emmy Awards, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, could even accept the cast for then film. Some despised Freeman, the actor who successfully portrayed Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, and Dr. John Watson in the British crime drama series Sherlock would even think of doing scenes that would cause discomfort to viewers.
"Martin Freeman!, What are you doing to Jenna Ortega?"
And given by Ortega’s high profile on Netflix thanks to Wednesday, why did she even bother to accept the cast.
According to various publications, viewers are reeling from the scandalous relationship in this movie, and that the forbidden relationship as the theme of the film has been making rounds on social media.
While the majority of the internet literally doesn't care, the alleged furor over this movie has gotten so bad that Martin Freeman is out to defend himself.
And to some people, this makes the film worth even more debates and controversy that what it might originally be.
"It’s not saying, ‘Isn’t this great?’" Freeman said, after social media users trashed the film, after seeing the sex scenes between him and Ortega, who is more than half his age.
The actor slammed those who didn’t get that point, adding, "And that’s a shame."
He also provided an example of another film that deploys disturbing imagery for the sake of evoking horror.
"Are we gonna have a go at Liam Neeson for being in a film about the Holocaust?" he asked.
The film’s on-set intimacy coordinator Kristina Arjona attempted to counter the initial backlash surrounding the film during its initial release.
She insisted that the actors, particularly Ortega, were made comfortable filming these scenes.
"There [were] many, many people throughout this process, engaging with [Ortega] to make sure that it was consistent with what she was comfortable with, and she was very determined and very sure of what she wanted to do," she said.
"Part of my job, too, is supporting her decisions. I adapt to whatever is the comfort level of my actors, especially on a production like this where there is a large age gap between the actors," she continued, adding,
"I'm hyper aware of both of my talent and making sure that we're consistently checking in and that at no point are any of their boundaries being surpassed."
Despite the backlash from social media, having actors and actresses as co-stars aren't anything new.
In fact, major age gaps are not unusual in Hollywood's celebrities real-life relationships.
Besides the sex scene with Freeman's character, Ortega's character also has an intimate scene with Winnie Black, played by Gideon Adlon.
People also commented on how Ortega, a young actress, is now being sexualized due to her increasing fame, that now she is an adult.
Besides the sex scenes, Ortega's character is also seen smoking multiple times, and there is a scene where she undresses.
It's like Hollywood has been waiting for this for years.
Her viral dance move is now gone, because Ortega is making headline for being an adult.
