Emily Atack has admitted that being naked wasn’t her main concern for the fully nude scene in the new show that’s just dropped with a huge Rotten Tomatoes score.
Having warned viewers ahead of its release, the star has left fans stunned in Disney+’s Rivals. Based on Jilly Cooper’s steamy novel from the 80s, the series also stars David Tennant, Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson.
Pretty much packed with nudity and sex, it ‘dives headfirst into the cutthroat world of TV where hair-dos are big and ambitions are even bigger’ where everyone wants to get, shall we say, on top.
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And kicking things off as it means to go on, the first we see of Atack in Rivals is her totally naked playing a game of tennis.
During promo for the series, The Inbetweeners star spoke to On Demand Entertainment as an interviewer asked if she’d tried to play a spot of naked tennis since filming. This led to her confession of what she was really concerned about on set.
“The funny thing is that when I read the script I was so worried because I thought ‘well I’m going to have to play tennis’,” the 34-year-old said. “And that was my main concern.”
While her on-screen husband Rufus Jones seemed a little surprised about this, she assured she ‘genuinely’ was more concerned about the whole playing sport part over being naked as that was ‘fine’.
“I just had a spray tan and got on with it – it was great. I haven’t tried naked tennis since,” Atack added.
The actor is deservedly getting a whole lot of praise for her brilliant performance in the ‘hilarious’ bonkbuster show as Rivals currently sits at a whopping 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer.
One user wrote on X: “Squealing, smiling, giggled and literally going feral because of Rivals.”
As others called it ‘absolutely outstanding’ and Kathy Burke praised: “Had the privilege of a sneak peek of the first episode and it’s fantastic! All eps drop today like most of the characters under-crackers. Can’t wait!”
Speaking to Digital Spy about the nudity in the show, Atack added: “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."
Rivals is available to stream now on Disney+.
Topics: Emily Atack, TV and Film, Disney Plus
Jess Battison