Bel Powley of 'The Diary of a Teenage Girl' on ‘Honest Depiction’ of Teen Sexuality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f32T8Xh2G4

Female sexuality on the big screen has marginalized into two roles—the virgin or the vixen. But in the coming of age story “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” actress Bel Powley says her character Minnie is a refreshing departure from the old Hollywood trope.

“I think that it’s just the most honest depiction of what it actually feels like to be a teenage girl,” she tells Made in Hollywood. “I feel like Minnie’s story, her coming of age and sexual exploration, is timeless—especially when it comes to females.”

The 23-year-old stars as a teen forming her sexuality in the 1970s as she has an affair with her mother's (Kristen Wiig) boyfriend, played by Alexander Skarsgård—"the handsomest man in the world.”

Powley says the story presents the issue of teens and sex through her 15-year-old character in a way that’s realistic and relatable—succeeding where many of the coming of age films that she has seen have failed.

“The women were presented in a very 2D way; the high school slut or the asexual geeky girl, and it was never a character that I could relate to, whereas Minnie is a whole person—she’s 3D,” she explains. “She’s flawed, but also has amazing parts about her. She’s just the way a teenager really is.”

“The Diary of a Teenage Girl” hits theaters Friday. Watch the trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9LNsSjnqBM