Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson: The peril of nude TV scenes being screenshot – and put online forever

As the flame-haired beauty Demelza in Poldark, her sex scenes with co-star Aiden Turner were purposefully coy.

Now Eleanor Tomlinson, 31, has revealed why she is so reluctant to undress for her art, saying: ‘You’re opening yourself up to be screenshot… and those pictures end up online for ever.’

Eleanor, seen in a publicity shot for Channel 4’s new erotic thriller The Couple Next Door, says young actors should not be forced into nude scenes.

She says she has pushed back against producers who wanted her to expose more flesh while filming her character’s sexual encounters.

Eleanor, seen in a publicity shot for Channel 4 ‘s new erotic thriller The Couple Next Door, says young actors should not be forced into nude scenes

Eleanor Tomlinson spoke on the peril of nude TV, pictured here in a scene with Keira Knightley 

Eleanor Tomlinson stars in The Couple Next Door on Channel 4

‘There are so many more interesting ways you can show this. I have done nudity before but, for me, it’s based on each project and how necessary I feel it is,’ she adds in an interview to promote the six-part series, which begins tomorrow.

READ MORE: Demelza swings into suburbia: Forget the period dramas, Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson sizzles in a new thriller set in the world of wife-swapping 

‘And I didn’t feel like it was for this new series. I mean, there was a conversation where they were pushing for it and the harder they pushed for it, the more I felt like saying, ‘No, you’re just not being creative here’.

‘You don’t need to show everything because ultimately that immediately pauses everyone’s concentration.’

Eleanor, who says she argued for Demelza to have her iconic red hair in Poldark, rather than the dark hair described in Winston Graham’s novels, appears as Evie in the new drama. She moves with her partner Pete (played by Sam Heughan) to a suburb in Leeds – only to find themselves next door to a sexually liberated couple.

She is not the first actress to speak out about ‘gratuitous’ nudity on screen. Game Of Thrones star Emilia Clarke, who appeared in explicit sex scenes for the fantasy drama’s first season, later revealed she would ‘cry’ before filming.

She later turned down the lead role of Anastasia Steele in the movie adaptation of erotic thriller 50 Shades Of Grey because of the amount of nudity required.

However London-born Eleanor, who married her rugby player boyfriend Will Owen last year, argues that nudity ‘was necessary’ for her character in the 2018 film Colette, based on the life story of French writer Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, played by Keira Knightley.

‘But I’ve yet to find a role since,’ Eleanor told a newspaper.

‘There’s an element of self- preservation that comes into it because you’re opening yourself up to be screenshot and paused, and those pictures end up online and will for ever be there… for me, it all has to be character-driven.’

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