HER character in hit new TV show The Girlfriend thinks nothing of romping with a man after knowing him for just a few minutes.
But actress Olivia Cooke admits she finds filming such sex scenes “mortifying”.
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The Oldham-born actress says her heart sinks when she sees upcoming racy moments in a script and has even suffered embarrassment before the camera starts to roll.
She is now starring in the psychological thriller on Amazon Prime Video with Robin Wright, having previously played murderous queen Alicent Hightower in the Sky Atlantic fantasy drama House Of The Dragon.
Sex scenes were integral to the plot of the latter show, which is part of the Game Of Thrones series and packed with prostitutes and no-holds-barred bed-hopping.
Olivia, 31, admitted: “It’s odd, isn’t it? It’s an odd part of the job. You see it looming in the schedule and you’re like, Jesus Christ! For some reason, it’s all happened to me as I’ve turned 30. It’s happening quite a lot . . . it’s happening all the time.
“My career at the moment is like the humiliation of Olivia Cooke.
‘My first heartbreak’
“I’ve got an amazing dresser called Alexandra Bland, who has been with me since House Of The Dragon.
“So, I’m very, very comfortable anatomically with her — she’s seen it all.
“But you have to wear these intimacy garments — sort of nudity covers — which are basically like a bit of gusset with a silicon pad in it that you have to tape to yourself.
“And it’s really hard because it’s got sticky on it and it gets twisted and the sticky gets stuck together and it’s hard to put on. And Alex was like, ‘Do you want me to help you?’. I said, ‘Absolutely f***ing not!’.
“But then on my fourth time trying to stick it up my derriere, it was getting stuck and it kept falling off. “Alex is from the Lake District and she was like, ‘F***ing hell Olivia, just bend over — let me help you’.
“And so I bent over and I’m spreading — it’s so mortifying. But rise above and disassociate — out of body . . . this is weird, this is odd.”
The star, who grew up in a former council house, started acting at eight and attended the Oldham Theatre Workshop, which is famous for launching the careers of numerous award-winning stars, including Anna Friel and Suranne Jones.
She was a teenager doing her A levels when she was plucked from obscurity for the three-part BBC One series Blackout and then supernatural thriller The Secret Of Crickley Hall.
It’s odd, isn’t it? It’s an odd part of the job. You see it looming in the schedule and you’re like, Jesus Christ!
And she landed a part in a One Direction music video after they won X Factor, where she got a piggyback from heart-throb Harry Styles.
She went on to get an agent in Los Angeles, which helped her win a role in US TV horror drama Bates Motel when she was 18.
Olivia has also starred in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi adventure Ready Player One and Vanity Fair.
Despite her working-class background and Mancunian accent, her talent came to the fore.
She went on to appear in Thoroughbreds with Anya Taylor-Joy and Slow Horses with Gary Oldman, before getting her starring role in The Girlfriend, which has shot to the top of the streaming charts.
She plays glamorous estate agent Cherry, who captures the heart of sweet-natured medical student Daniel, played by Laurie Davidson, but has a power struggle with his weirdly possessive mother Laura, played by actress and director Robin.
During the first episode, the pair are seen romping in a flat she is trying to sell to Daniel within minutes of them meeting, and she is then seen performing an intimate act on him in his parents’ London mansion — which his mother witnesses.
The juicy power struggle between the two women threatens to turn violent as they plot against each other and it’s a script that — surprisingly — Olivia can relate to, having taken revenge on her first love.
Speaking on the Reign With Josh Smith podcast, she said: “He brutally dumped me while I was on holiday.
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“Couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, my first heartbreak. Well, I started going out with his best mate.”
Now she is dating House Of The Dragon co-star Ralph Davis.
They were spotted together in Soho in 2024, initially as friends, but last July she posted pictures of their holiday together on Instagram.
The romance appears to be drama-free, but talking about The Girlfriend, she said: “It’s another Jeremy Kyle story, basically, isn’t it? It’s quite relatable. It’s this vying for the son that then goes above and beyond sort of revenge and into sort of lunacy.”
‘Really scary time’
Olivia’s career is on the up, but she admits being thrust into the spotlight so young caused her problems early on. It led to her having recurring “intrusive thoughts” and OCD, which led to a “really scary time”.
The star and her two siblings — a younger brother and a sister — were raised by their policeman dad John Cooke and sales rep mum Lindsay Wilde.
My career at the moment is like the humiliation of Olivia Cooke
Olivia Cooke
She suspects her background might have held her back had she not spent the first part of her career working in the US and Canada.
She said: “I didn’t get pigeonholed, thank God, but it is so a part of our industry. A lot of people went to Eton or Harrow, or their parents were in the industry, which is absolutely fine.
“It’s just the chance of breaking through when you are from a lower-middle-class/working-class background is nearly impossible.
“I grew up in an ex-council house, and I didn’t know anyone in this industry. This was never destined for me whatsoever. I had big dreams, but I just never thought they would come to fruition. Then the dreams did find me and I was sort of really bowled over by what happened.
“You know, coming from Oldham when there’s not that many examples of actors who have gone on to success outside of a soap — that’s quite rare.”
Witnessing her parents’ divorce fuelled her determination to make it, however.
She told the podcast: “I’m from a broken home. So it was always a bit like, ‘Daddy, Daddy, love me’. And I’m the eldest, so I think that’s like a potent combination of, ‘Please someone, pay attention to me’.”
Her father is a bit of a showman, too. Speaking on the same podcast, she added: “My dad loves karaoke.
“Oh God, he made me sing when we were in Rhodes in Greece.
“I was 14 and I think I was sneaking jelly shots and all of a sudden I heard my name being called out and he made me sing the Frank and Nancy Sinatra line, ‘And then I go and spoil it all’.
“It was so excruciating, because it’s quite a romantic song and I was riddled with puberty as well.”
Olivia thinks if her teenage self could look at her career now she’d be amazed — and perhaps a little upset that she doesn’t have bigger boobs.
Of her new role, she said: “It’s very cool. If my 13-year-old or 12-year-old self saw that, they’d go into cardiac arrest. Like, it’s wild. But I always wanted my boobs to be bigger, so she’d be disappointed with that!”
