There’s nothing normal about getting nude on set

I remember how I felt the first time I saw Daisy Edgar-Jones’ nipples. Sitting on my sofa at home during lockdown, watching the BBC Three adaptation of Sally Rooney’s prize winning novel, Normal People, my jaw dropped as Edgar-Jones casually stretched an arm above her head, her bare chest fully exposed towards the camera.

“She’s so brave!” I shouted out of nowhere, at my boyfriend. “What?” he replied, eyes glued to the screen, lost in his own (potentially quite different) stream of thought. Whilst both Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal appear in the nude throughout the series, it was Edgar-Jones’ full frontal nakedness in particular that shocked me.
Having worked on film and TV sets when I was her age, I know how tough it is. Being a screen actor is essentially an exercise in how un-self-conscious you can be.

This is how it works: in-between takes, blokes in thick hiking boots and enormous North Face puffy jackets stomp around set chewing gum and yelling at each other to move heavy, expensive equipment.