The steamy series dropped on Disney+ this week and stars Emily Atack, David Tennant and Danny Dyer
Emily Atack has issued a response to critics of her ‘raunchy’ new TV show.
The Disney+ series landed on Friday (18 October) and also stars the likes of David Tennant, Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson.
The series is based on a rather streamy novel by Jilly Cooper, in which 34-year-old Atack plays Sarah Stratton, the wife of the Prime Minister’s deputy.
While it begins with a raunchy mile high scene, it’s actually a tennis match in which Atack is fully nude that has had people talking, with one person calling it the ‘sexiest show’ yet, meanwhile others called it a ‘bonkbuster’.
While Atack has called her naked scene in the show – called Rivals – ‘liberating’ she also had a message for critics, too.
Speaking to Sky News, she said: “It’s so liberating.
“Of course, there are going to be people out there that take what you do and try and spin a negative narrative on it. I’m a woman, of course, people are going to do that.
“But what I have to keep stressing to people is I’m exactly where I need to be. I’m at work, I’m playing a role, I’m very comfortable and I’m on a closed set.
“We have intimacy coordinators, I get on very well with my director, the crew, the actors and I’m very happy and comfortable.
“It’s other people’s characters that need to be looked at if they’re going to twist it into some grotesque negativity.”
Atack said she loved making Rivals (Instagram/@emilyatack)
The show has been hugely popular so far and has even scored a whopping 94 percent average score on the Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer.
One person wrote on X: “Not a word of a lie to say #Rivals is one of the best TV shows I’ve watched all year.”
And another said: “Just binge watched the whole of Rivals by Jilly Cooper on Disney Plus. Glossy, naughty trash TV at its absolute finest.”
And a third added: “Just watched the 1st episode of Rivals on Disney+. Fabulous. Perfect recreation of the 80s, enormous amounts of sex and nudity, very funny dialogue, a 1st rate cast having an absolute ball.”
Atack did say she might ‘shield’ some of her family members from watching the nude scene, telling HELLO!: “My friends and family have seen me do this quite a lot now, worryingly.
“My family work in the industry as well, so they kind of look at a professional stance but I don’t think they know quite how raunchy this one is. I might shield with my dad’s and my son’s eyes, but apart from that, it’s not real.”
You can watch Rivals on Disney+ now.
Featured Image Credit: Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Disney+/Karwai Tang/WireImage
