Rivals star Emily Atack has one condition for signing up to a sex scene with actors
Rivals star says she ‘loves playing bombshells’ and was so ‘comfortable’ shooting her notorious naked tennis scene ‘you couldn’t get my clothes back on me’

Rivals star Emily Atack says she will ‘do whatever it takes’ to get a sex scene right as long as the ‘men are perfectly gorgeous and well-behaved’.

The actress, who plays MP Paul Stratton’s second wife Sarah in the steamy TV show, said she loves ‘playing bombshells’. And at the end of her notorious naked tennis scene in the hit series ‘you couldn’t get my clothes back on me’.

Emily, 36, who also starred in The Inbetweeners and was runner up on I’m A Celebrity in 2018, said she identifies with many aspects of her character Sarah’s life and ‘not all the good stuff’.

The actress told Grazia: “I love playing bombshells. When it comes to sex scenes, if I’m on a set where I’m being looked after, where the men are perfectly gorgeous and well-behaved and everyone’s professional, I’m absolutely fine.

“I will do whatever it takes to get the scene right. With the naked tennis scene you couldn’t get my clothes back on me at the end of the day because I was so comfortable.

“There are so many things about Sarah that I identify with, and not all the good stuff.

“I’m talking about having to lean on certain things to get what you want – your blonde hair, your flirtatious eyelashes, your sexuality – even if you’re so uncomfortable doing it.”

Emily, the daughter of actress Kate Robbins and musician Keith Atack, niece of comic Ted Robbins and a cousin of Sir Paul McCartney, said she felt ‘powerful’ doing a recent shoot for lingerie giant Agent Provocateur.

“In the past I’ve felt powerless because you are just having to mould yourself for the male gaze,” she said.

“But this was powerful because it was all for me, taking ownership of a sexuality that has been ripped from me over the years.”

The actress, who was sexually assaulted by a stranger as a youngster and repeatedly abused online by trolls over her weight, credited her scientist fiance Dr Alistair Garner with teaching her about ‘sexiness’.

The actress said: “I feel like Al has taught me that sexiness and beauty and love are very different things from what I had known in previous relationships.

“And sex comes into that hugely. I have always had a very complicated relationship with sex. “It’s something I’ve had to learn is not a painful, sad, lonely thing that I’m having to do to please whoever I’m with.

“It hasn’t always been like that. I’ve had good relationships too. Sex isn’t just something you do, it’s somewhere you go – and that’s something I’ve really had to say to Al.

“I have to really go somewhere away from the pain I’ve experienced. That’s something we work on. And I’m so relieved I’ve found a partner I can be honest with about that.

“We’re getting married abroad. It’s going to be a big, fat f***-off party. Since filming Rivals, in terms of fashion, I tend to go quite big now generally. Life is good. It doesn’t get much better than where I am now.”