NADIA Sawalha has opened up about suffering a brutal humiliation on the set of a major TV drama. The 57-year-old made the admission during Thursday’s episode of Loose Women, revealing the director made her feel like she “had no voice” during the exchange. She said: “I remember one particular big TV drama I was on […]
NADIA Sawalha has opened up about suffering a brutal humiliation on the set of a major TV drama.
The 57-year-old made the admission during Thursday’s episode of Loose Women, revealing the director made her feel like she “had no voice” during the exchange.
She said: “I remember one particular big TV drama I was on and I hadn’t realised I had to do a swimsuit scene and was absolutely frantic when I got there on the day.
“There was all these swimsuits and I was in tears – might add I was 9st 3lbs at the time – but was panic-stricken about cellulite, I was too fat, it was so embarrassing…
“I broke down to the wardrobe woman, who was just lovely, really auntie-like, and she went ‘I’ll go and talk to the director’.
“She came back and said ‘they’re going to allow you a very tiny sarong’.
“So I said ‘ok’. She’s spoken to the director and the director knows where I’m at and it’s going to be fine.
“So I had to walk all the way down these stairs, with a camera above me, with all these actors around, a very misogynistic kind of atmosphere.”
But all was not as it seemed, as Nadia discovered when she made it to the end of the scene.
“I came down the stairs thinking ‘I’ve done it’ and the director said at the top of his voice ‘if you don’t want me to shoot your cellulite, give me more tits and teeth’,” she said.
“And he made me go up and down those stairs over and over again to do that shot.”
Nadia’s co-star Jane Moore said: “The wonderful thing is that would not happen now. The actress would not have to put up with that.”
Agreeing, Nadia replied: “No. But I had nowhere. I had no voice.”
Actress Nadia shot to fame as Annie Palmer in BBC1 soap EastEnders, though there is no suggestion that’s the drama she was referring to.
