The much-anticipated adaptation of Jilly Cooper‘s infamous Rivals novel debuted on Disney+ yesterday (18 October), and it’s safe to say we have a lot of questions, mainly about the many, many sex scenes.
While watching (read: bingeing – yep, all episodes are available to stream at once) we found ourselves wondering about one scene in particular… Rupert Campbell-Black’s full-frontal nude scene, to be precise.
In the series, Rupert – a retired Olympian show jumper and a notorious womaniser struggling with the breakdown of his marriage – is played by Alex Hassell, who you might know from the likes of His Dark Materials, The Boys and The Miniaturist.
Anyway, back to the scene in question, in which we see Alex’s Rupert engage in a naked tennis match (you read that right) with Sarah Stratton, played by Emily Atack – who has already opened up about filming sex scenes on the series. Speaking about the scene himself, Alex has now revealed there were plenty of pre-filming discussions about whether he’d wear a prosthetic for the show.
“It was discussed how comfortable I was,” he told the Metro, “whether or not it would be me or prosthetics or digital.”
“In the end, we just went for it,” he continued, jokingly adding: “My hair’s dyed, I’ve got a fake tan and my eyelashes are curled but apart from that it’s all me.” Anyone else getting a bit hot in here?
Chiming into the conversation, Alex’s co-star David Tenant – who revealed he actually sustained an injury during one of his own sex scenes – admitted that filming them never gets easier, which is why having an intimacy co-ordinator on set is so vital.
“These things are never comfortable, but that’s why the environment that’s created is really important,” said David. “The arrival of the intimacy coordinator on sets has been hugely beneficial to everyone.”
He went on: “Recreating that kind of intimacy is not something you get excited about doing, but you want to make sure that in that environment everyone feels safe and looked after, and that it can be as comfortable as possible.”
All episodes of Rivals are available to stream on Disney+ now.