Emily Atack Praises Jilly Coopers Impact on Women

has reflected on her Rivals character Sarah and how Jilly Cooper makes readers 'understand why women had to use sexuality to get things they wanted'.

The Inbetweeners star, 36, appeared on This Morning on Friday with her Rivals co-star to discuss the show, the second season of which hit Disney+ just hours before, with Emily featuring as the racy Sarah Stratton, who is pregnant. 

During season one of the hit show, Emily famously stripped nude for a scene that saw her protect her modesty using a tennis racket while playing the second wife and former mistress of MP Paul Stratton, played by Rufus Jones.

Reflecting on her saucy character, she spoke about how author Jilly Cooper - who wrote the 1988 book Rivals - makes you 'root for people you should hate' while also overhauling how women are written about.   

She said: 'Sarah is such an amazing character to play and I feel so grateful that women like her are finally being written with complexity and nuance and the writing's incredible, I'm so lucky.'

Emily spoke about her character, saying: 'Sarah is such an amazing character to play and I feel so grateful that women like like her are finally being written with complexity and nuance and the writing's incredible, I'm so lucky...

'That's the thing with Jilly's writing you have these characters you are meant to hate like with women like Sarah, you're supposed to villify them and hate them and tear them down but you actually wind up rooting for them... 

'You don't condone the behaviours and all the bad stuff going on and you start to understand why women had to use their sexuality to get what they want and that's fun to play and I'm so happy women are being written more complex now. 

She has kept her clothes firmly on for part one of the first season but has confessed she wouldn't be averse to another nude shot after finding the process 'so liberating'.

Emily previously told Sky News: '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.'

Emily added: '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.'

Emily's return to Rivals comes after she was accused of using fast-track weight loss jabs to achieve her weight loss.

She has not commented on the speculation.

Emily filmed season two of Rivals two years after welcoming her son Barney and previously revealed that just months after giving birth she had been inundated with questions about her weight.

Speaking to Jamie Laing on his Great Company podcast in November 2024, she said: 'There's something quite liberating about having a baby. Your body goes through so much and you genuinely look at your body as a completely different vessel.

'Being pregnant and being desexualised, looking at your body, you create a human inside you, then you give birth to your child - which by the way is mental - you get home and the first thing people say to you is, when are you going to get back in the gym?

'Are you kidding? I've just created a human, I am exhausted! I've just tried to push a human out of me and had it ripped out of my stomach.

'The last thing I want to do is go to the gym but the first thing you're expected to do is get back into shape.

'Where's the congratulations for being a mother? Instead it's when are you going to get the baby weight off... I'm not back at the gym at the minute, I've actually put on more weight since giving birth. I'm just enjoying this bit.'