Rivals and Inbetweeners star Emily Atack has revealed she was sexually assaulted while at work.
The actress told the Radio Times: “I’ve been sexually assaulted at work throughout my career, whether it’s on the actual set, or at a wrap party.”
Atack, who has previously fronted a documentary about her experiences of being sexually harassed online, didn’t give further details of the assaults.
She also welcomed the increased use of intimacy co-ordinators, which “shows that people are listening and that there has to be a shift in behaviour on sets”, and added that she hasn’t “felt safe all the time” in the past.
The use of professionals to oversee sex scenes has been divisive at times, but they “are there for support if you feel uncomfortable, whether you’re a man or a woman”, she said.
The actress said she now wants to make a documentary about intimacy co-ordinators, following her previous 2023 programme, Emily Atack: Asking For It?, about online sexual harassment.
In that programme, Atack revealed she was sent hundreds of explicit pictures and messages every day, and asked what motivates the men behind them and what could be done to stop them.
The 35-year-old added that she wanted to raise her young son Barney “to know how to treat women and know his own worth, so he doesn’t feel he has to follow awful men online that are preying on vulnerable boys”.
Atack continued that recent Netflix hit Adolescence “exposed the truth of what is going on in so many homes”.
“We’re a very open book in this family,” she said. “I want Barney to know he can talk to me about anything – that’s the mother I want to be.”
The actress was 17 when she was cast as Charlotte Hinchcliffe in popular Channel 4 coming-of-age comedy The Inbetweeners.
She told the BBC in 2023 that she began receiving unwanted attention from some men from a very young age.
Atack added that confronting her online abuse was one of the hardest things she had ever done – she underwent therapy throughout the process because it had involved revisiting past trauma.
She will next be seen in Channel 5’s new thriller The Rumour later this month.
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