BBC EMILY’S STIFFY-PROD TERROR
RANDY actors “nudge” their female co-stars with raging STIFFIES, the star of the BBC’s new drama has said.
Emily Beecham, who plays Fanny Logan in The Pursuit of Love, said male actors “blurring the lines” made her feel unsafe earlier in her career.
“I was very young and I was doing an awful lot of sex scenes,” she told Sunday Times magazine.
“So I did feel quite defensive after a while, a bit unsafe.
“I’ve had friends who have had actors press their erections up against them, and you’ve just got to ignore it.
“People do blur the lines and they do suddenly try to ‘go method’ with you.”
The English-American actress stars alongside Lily James and Dominic West in the three-part drama adapted from Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel about sisterhood and sexual awakening.
Fixating
The drama debuted on Sunday and fills the void left by Line of Duty.
Manchester- b o r n Emily has praised the innovations of intimacy coordinators who choreograph sex scenes and ensure consent during filming, saying they have improved the on-set experience for performers.
Intimacy co-ordinators have become more prevalent following the MeToo movement.
The change has been welcomed by stars including Ruth Wilson and Rege-Jean Page.
Emily, who won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her turn in Little Joe, has also welcomed the rise of more female writers and directors in a film industry that almost forced her to quit early in her career.
She said she grew tired of crews fixating on her looks, recalling one moment when filmmakers asked: “Why does Emily look so ugly in this tape? She looks pretty in her showreel.”
In her role as Fanny Logan, she serves as the narrator of Mitford’s novel, which offered a semi-autobiographical account of her eccentric aristocratic sisters.
The BBC adaptation was three years in the making and centres on the urge for freedom and sexual awakening sought by Linda Radlett, played by Lily James, whose efforts are frustrated by her father, played by Dominic West.