Actress Kristin Scott Thomas abandoned plans to visit a women's prison to research a new film role, fearing the experience would leave her scarred.
The Brit initially planned to experience life behind bars, to better connect to her imprisoned character in new movie I've Loved You So Long.
But she opted to watch documentaries and read up on the experience from the comfort of her home when the film's director questioned her motives.
She says, "This woman has just come out of prison. My initial instinct was that I must go meet women prisoners because I've never been in a prison in my life...
"Suddenly, it dawned on me what would happen if I went and met these women, is the person, Kristin, would be effected by the distress and I would be affected by the pity or anger or disgust. All these things that would get in the way of me being as honest as possible in portraying this character. So I ended up not going."