Emily Atack strips completely naked in the new Disney+ series of Jilly Cooper’s ‘bonkbuster’ Rivals.
The actress, 34, who plays the wife of the Deputy Prime Minister, Sarah Stratton, said she found the scenes ‘so liberating’.
It is a pivotal moment for Emily, who has admitted she ‘naively didn’t think what narrative was being painted for me’ when she rose to fame as Charlotte ‘Big Jugs’ Hinchcliffe on The Inbetweeners 16 years ago.
The life-changing role meant she got recognised instantly and booked for plenty of risqué photoshoots in lads magazines.
However, Emily was also hit by the dark side of fame where she became a victim to online sexual harassment and fat-shaming.
Emily Atack strips completely naked in the new Disney+ series of Jilly Cooper’s ‘bonkbuster’ Rivals. The actress, 34, who plays Sarah Stratton, said she found the scenes ‘so liberating’
It is a pivotal moment for Emily, who has admitted she ‘naively didn’t think what narrative was being painted for me’ when she rose to fame as Charlotte ‘Big Jugs’ on The Inbetweeners
In Rivals, the actress strips off to play tennis with Alex Hassell’s character Rupert Campbell Black, who is also starkers
In Rivals, the actress strips off to play tennis with Alex Hassell’s character Rupert Campbell Black, who is also starkers.
Of the racy scenes, Emily told Sky News: ‘It’s so liberating and of course there are going to be people out there that take what you do and try and spin this negative narrative on it. I’m a woman, of course people are going to do that.
‘But what I need to keep doing is stressing to people is I’m exactly where I need to be, I’m at work. I’m playing a role and I’m very comfortable.’
Emily added there was an intimacy co-ordinator on set.
‘As soon as I read it, I got the same feeling that I got when I first auditioned for Charlotte from The Inbetweeners; the same little thrill in my stomach of, “Oh my god, this is perfect for me”,’ she told The Radio Times.
When promoting the series, the TV favourite spoke openly about her rise to fame on The Inbetweeners and how it shaped it career.
She told The Guardian: ‘I was a very vulnerable teenager, but there was an air of kind of naive confidence in me. I thought, “I need this job, I need to pay my rent.” And from there, my life changed for ever.’
As The Inbetweeners found huge success, Emily soon found herself booked for magazine shoots.
Rivals is based on Jilly’s 1988 novel, and follows the cutthroat world of independent television in 1986
As The Inbetweeners found huge success, Emily soon found herself booked for lads magazine shoots, but ‘naively didn’t think what narrative was being painted for me’
Rivals focuses on the tense rivalry between Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant)
The highly-anticipated new Disney+ series, which has been hailed as a ‘bonkbuster,’ already has an average of 93% on the Tomatometer
She said: ‘This is where I get confused. And I was confused then,’ admitted Emily. ‘I was told, “You’ve got a photoshoot today” and it would be for Loaded magazine, or for FHM… So I was all, “Yep, clothes off, bikini on. Whatever.” Genuinely, I had no problems with that – I enjoyed those shoots.
‘I was celebrating my youth and my sexuality in beautiful locations, wearing gorgeous underwear… and I f****** loved it. It was great. I naively didn’t think what narrative was being painted for me.’
Unfortunately, she soon became a target for a torrent of online abuse which included fat-shaming and cyber flashing.
But to those people who have suggested the actress should’ve seen that coming, Emily insisted she didn’t show herself off in an ‘overtly sexual way’ and was instead simply promoting her work.
After The Inbetweeners, 13 films (including Get Lucky and Outside Bet) followed, where Emily played similar ‘totty’ roles.
Despite the mainly British movies often promising that it would chart the course to Hollywood for the actress, Emily recalled how one brutal meeting in LA ended with her being told she had to become a UK size six to be considered for any future role.
She said: ‘All of a sudden, my weight was a thing. And since then, my weight has always been a thing.’
But in 2018 her career improved significantly once again after she appeared on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! and won second place behind Harry Redknapp – a TV comedy series, called The Emily Atack Show, and a one-woman standup show followed.
Emily, welcomed her first child, son Barney, in June with her boyfriend Alistair Garner
However, the actress revealed how still had to deal with trolls and critics who claimed women couldn’t be amusing.
Following her experiences, Emily, who welcomed her first child, son Barney, in June with her boyfriend Alistair Garner, is now ‘really standing firm in saying there is a massive issue here: misogyny isn’t going anywhere’.
However, that’s not going to stop the mother-of-one from ‘getting her kit off’ anytime soon – with the actress recently insisting that playing a promiscuous role does not undermine her campaigning to end violence against women.
The actress told The Radio Times: ‘You can’t win whatever you do. If you keep your clothes on you’re a frigid nun, if you take your clothes off you’re a tart.
‘But I love my job and if a role I’m playing requires nudity and it’s integral to the story and I’m safe, I’m exactly where I should be. The whole cast were warned early on that there would be nudity and sex scenes, so you knew what you were getting into.
‘These kinds of roles are fun. I’m still young and it’s OK to feel liberated. I enjoy what I do. And it’s Jilly Cooper – it’s an honour to do it.’
Rivals is based on Jilly’s 1988 novel, and follows the cutthroat world of independent television in 1986.
It focuses on the tense rivalry between Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) and stars Emily as Sarah Stratton, who is described as ambitious and not afraid to use her looks to get to the top.
According to Disney+, Rivals is a ‘joyously mischievous rollercoaster ride, steamy in its love stories and packed with larger-than-life characters.’
The streaming service continues that it brings a ‘2020s lens to the 1980s’, offering a ‘raw exploration of a complicated moment in British history when class, race, sex, wealth, and sexual liberation meant that, for the very privileged few, there were no limits to what they could achieve’.
Rivals fans have said they are ‘already obsessed’ with the show as it debuted on Disney+ on Friday.
The highly-anticipated new Disney+ series, which has been hailed as a ‘bonkbuster,’ already has an average of 93% on the Tomatometer, based on the glowing early reviews of fourteen critics.
