Martin Freeman defends himself against the recent controversy surrounding his film “Miller’s Girl”.

Freeman, who plays high school teacher Jonathan Miller in the Jade Halley Bartlett-directed dramedy, addressed the 31-year age difference between himself and co-star Jenna Ortega in an interview with The Sunday Times published Saturday. The “Wednesday” star plays Cairo Sweet, an 18-year-old student with whom Miller has an affair.

Despite the film’s controversial subject matter, Freeman told the British broadcaster that the film was “mature and nuanced.” He added that artistic works can focus on difficult subjects without glorifying them. He cited as an example Liam Neeson’s 1993 historical drama “Schindler’s List,” which deals with the Nazi persecution of Jews during World War II.

“It’s not about saying, ‘Isn’t that great?'” Freeman said in defense of “Miller’s Girl.” “Are we going to attack Liam Neeson for being in a movie about the Holocaust?”

Controversy over “Miller’s Girl”: SAG-AFTRA adjusts confidentiality rules for intimacy coordinators after Jenna Ortega film

Jenna Ortega felt “comfortable” in the intimate scene in “Miller’s Girl”

In an interview with the Daily Mail in February, intimacy coordinator Kristina Arjona said Ortega was completely comfortable with an intimate scene between her and Freeman’s characters in “Miller’s Girl.”

“Throughout the whole process, there were many, many people engaging with (Jenna) to make sure it was in line with what she was comfortable with, and she was very determined and very confident in what she wanted to do,” Arjona said at the time, adding, “I’m very conscious of both of my talents and making sure we’re constantly coordinating and that at no point are her boundaries crossed.”

Arjona also said there were discussions with Ortega and Freeman about the “level of nudity,” adding that the film had “different variations of how they wanted to shoot those scenes so that audiences could see them in test screenings to see what was too much.”

“It’s very manipulative”: Jenna Ortega talks about the dark side of social media

Shortly after Arjona’s interview, actors’ union SAG-AFTRA adjusted its standards and protocols for the use of intimacy coordinators, who SAG-AFTRA defines as liaisons between actors and production for nudity and intimate scenes. The protocols now state that an intimacy coordinator must keep an actor’s work and experience in portraying such sensitive scenes confidential unless they have the actor’s permission to share the information.

According to Deadline, intimacy coordinators who do not follow these rules could be removed from the SAG-AFTRA registry.

“Miller’s Girl” is now available to stream on Netflix.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Martin Freeman discusses the ‘Miller’s Girl’ controversy and the age difference between Jenna Ortega