April Pearson, who played Michelle during the first two seasons of Skins, has said she was fired from a film after refusing to shoot a nude scene.
In a post shared to the social media platform TikTok, Pearson spoke about the incident and said the role was instead given to a “supporting artist”.
In the clip, Pearson admitted that she has “never talked publicly about this”, going on to explain: “I was once fired on the spot during a sex scene from a feature film because I wouldn’t renege on my nudity clause.”
She also specified what the nudity clause involved: “I wouldn’t get my breasts out for the scene.”
The actor claimed that “the director decided that the scene needed that level of nudity”.
Explaining the fallout from her refusal to film nude, Pearson said: “They didn’t shut production down, they just gave my part to a supporting artist who was there on the day, who was happy to be completely nude for the scene.”
The actor later said in the video that the situation is “a real problem that we have in the industry”.
Pearson has previously spoken about and criticised her experience of filming sex scenes for the seminal E4 drama Skins: “I turned 18 right at the beginning of filming, so I just had so many more sex scenes than everyone else.
“I was having this conversation with my husband and I was saying I do feel like I was too young, I feel like I wasn’t protected.”
Since Skins, Pearson has appeared in horror film, Tormented and been prolific in theatre.
