Skins star April Pearson says she didn't feel protected and her time on show was 'f****d up'

Skins star April Pearson has claimed that she didn't feel protected while filming the popular E4 teen drama.

On the series, which ran from 2007 to 2013, April played Michelle Richardson, Tony Stonem's (Nicholas Hoult) on-off girlfriend.

Almost two decades since the show wrapped, April Pearson has been opening up about her time on Skins, revealing that it was a 'f***ed up experience'.

April was speaking with Laya Lewis, who played Liv Malone in seasons five and six, on the podcast Are You Michelle From Skins?, when the two got to talking about the more uncomfortable moments of production.

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When she started on the show, April was 18-years-old, and said that she wound up having far more sex scenes than other younger cast members.

"At the time you're young and you don't know any better," April said to Laya.

"You don't really know what to say, to speak out, is this okay...

"And as with a lot of victims of trauma, you look back at it and think: 'Yeah, that was f***ed up.'"

She continued: "There's a difference between being officially old enough and mentally old enough.

"I was having this conversation with my husband and I was saying I do feel like I was too young, I feel like I wasn't protected."

Laya agreed: "I do think fair enough, we are actors and we are acting, but I think if you want to pluck children out of the street, which is essentially what they were doing to have this authentic onscreen thing going on, there needs to be a bit more help."

April and Laya then went on to suggest that other former cast members have also 'carried some negativity' from that experience.

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"We're talking seven series of the same show and everyone feeling the same, certainly the women and some of the men I have spoken to feel the same," April claimed.

"Nowadays you have an intimacy co-ordinator as a standard for nude, intimate scenes and that just simply wasn't a thing."

As well as filming awkward sex scenes, Laya alleged that she felt 'a lot of pressure to be smaller or slimmer' on set.

"There was one point where we were told to skip breakfast, and for dinner we should just have a jacket potato," she said.

"'At the time I thought it was horrible, but I think it's so much f***ing worse now."

LADbible has reached out to Channel 4 for comment.