Irish star Saoirse Ronan says she hopes her latest film helps young people to talk more honestly about sex. Double Oscar nominee Ronan, 23, plays a newlywed who finds herself and her partner struggling to communicate on their 1962 honeymoon in the screen-adaptation of Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach.

Arriving at the film's premiere at the BFI London Film Festival, she said: "I hope this film gets people talking about sex and not have it be a taboo thing or something they should be ashamed of. So they can let it be something that can be shared between two people and be an honest thing.

"I think that is really healthy and I do feel people are starting to get to that stage."

She added: "I do feel - and I don't know if it's because I work in films and am around people who are more artistic and more open with their emotions - but I do feel like this generation of men, and women but particularly men, have been allowed to let down that faux-masculinity a little bit, that idea of being macho.

"I find the men around my age more open to being vulnerable and sensitive and aren't ashamed of it. It can almost stunt a person's growth if they aren't able to have that dialogue, especially with the person they are in a relationship with or their parents and their friends. The same with women, we are at a point now where we are almost meeting in the middle, I hope."