Sex with Kate Winslet was the best 25th birthday gift I could have ever asked for

ACTRESS Saoirse Ronan was overcome with excitement as she ripped the wrapping off her birthday present – because the wrapping in question happened to be Kate Winslet’s clothes.

- PETER SHERIDAN

And the present? A day filming a lesbian sex scene with the Hollywood legend in a new period romance movie, Ammonite.

Kate arranged the 25th birthday treat for her close friend and co-star Saoirse by asking the film’s director to change the shooting schedule for the moment when the story of two Victorian women in a budding romance exploded into a passion.

“It was the greatest present I could have asked for,” said Saoirse, the Irish star of Brooklyn, Little Women, and Atonement.

“I had a wonderful time. I’ve never done a sex scene so intense and full-on before. But to be able to do that with her… I did feel very safe like we could go anywhere with it.

“I am very appreciative she scheduled it for my birthday. It also gave us the excuse to have a couple of glasses of Prosecco before we got into it.”

And Kate, 45, admits the on-screen chemistry between the two straight actresses continued after the cameras stopped rolling.

“We totally adored each other,” the Titanic star said. She also told how their sex scene was a bit of an eye-opener as she has always been the submissive partner in love scenes with men.

Kate said: “To be in a situation with Saoirse where it was utterly equal, it made me feel kind of angry at how that hasn’t occurred to me before. Why shouldn’t I have felt equal to my male counterparts? That’s the way society is, and now we have to make a noise about it.”

It was revealing for Saoirse too after director Francis Lee gave the pair the go-ahead to improvise their lovemaking as they saw fit.