It’s not fair actresses are expected to go topless, moans star of steamy new show
HER latest role involves numerous steamy scenes, but Ruth Wilson says it’s unfair of TV bosses to expect actresses to appear topless.
The English actress, who stars in American TV show The Affair, which is about be aired in the UK, said male and female actors are treated differently when they film sex scenes – and it is the women who are expected to provide the titillation.
The 33-year-old added that she has a ‘big concern about how women are treated in the industry generally’.
Miss Wilson said she accepted the sex scenes in The Affair because they was justified by the plot, which follows an intense extramarital relationship. But the actress, who won a Golden Globe for her role in the series, said she is appalled by the focus in her industry on women’s bodies during such scenes.
She said: ‘ I t’s assumed that women will get their breasts out and have to get their breasts out and I baulk at that. It’s unnecessary and it’s unfair.’
She added that during filming for The Affair she kept insisting: ‘Why have I always got to do the orgasm face? There should be a male orgasm face. Why is it always the woman who’s orgasming?’
The series, which also stars fellow British actor Dominic West and was a huge hit in the US, begins airing in the UK on Sky Atlantic later this month, meaning that the former convent schoolgirl from Surrey has so far avoided the awkwardness of her parents seeing the scenes.
She told the Radio Times: ‘When it does come out I’ll leave the country. It’s vulnerable. You’re naked and you’re in this situation and you know your family is going to have to watch it. I can’t cope.’
Miss Wilson also revealed she hated going to drama club as a child because she was ‘so shy’. But she decided to pursue acting as she loved performing and has gone on to star in hit shows including crime series Luther, a BBC TV adaptation of Jane Eyre and Disney film Saving Mr Banks.