Emily Atack has said she’s not just getting her ‘kit off’ without any reason ahead of her full-frontal nudity scene in an upcoming drama.
The 34-year-old, of course, had her breakout role as Charlotte Hinchcliffe on The Inbetweeners, a character often referred to as ‘Big Jugs’ by others on the show.
And the actor previously explained that the idea of her being a ‘sexy schoolgirl’ was projected onto her and it wasn’t ‘originally meant to be that’.
Playing a pretty different role in her new show, the first time we see Atack on screen, she’s topless.
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Disney+’s upcoming series Rivals is based on Jilly Cooper’s 80’s steamy novel and also stars David Tennant, Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson.
Atack plays Sarah Stratton, the wife of the Prime Minister’s deputy (played by Rufus Jones), who uses her status to get a TV presenter spot.
And when we first meet the character she’s playing tennis naked with Alex Hassell’s character, Rupert Campbell-Black.
Surprisingly though, the star’s main worry for the scene wasn’t about the nudity part and rather the actual sport bit.
She told Digital Spy: “It wasn't, 'I'm gonna have to run around a tennis court completely starkers'. But, I like a big entrance. I was like, 'Yeah, bring it on'.
"We keep saying that the nudity and the sex scenes are a huge part of this, but there's always a reason for them. We're not just getting our kit off for no reason. They're very integral to the storylines and characters."
This nude tennis match is an infamous scene from Cooper’s novel, taken from her Rutshire Chronicles series.
Diving into the scene a little further, Atack said the cast all knew each other ‘really well’ by the time it came to filming it.
“I think anybody that had nudity scenes and sex scenes, we all just really supported each other, so we loved talking about it. It was liberating and it was very safe,” she said.
"We had intimacy coordinators, which is something that actually, I've never experienced before, which was really great to see how far we've come in that sense.
"I couldn't have felt more comfortable and looked after, and it was fun, great fun. It was summer, nice and warm. I had a great spray tan – off to the races."
The star also explained that she wore a merkin for filming the tennis game and got to watch it back to make sure she was comfortable with it.
"They let me have a say on that, which was nice," Atack added. "But yeah, it was fine. I'm an actress, doing my job, playing a role."
Rivals lands on Disney+ on 18 October.
Topics: Emily Atack, Disney Plus, TV and Film, Celebrity
Jess Battison