Obliterated star Shelley Hennig has apologized to her family for her R-rated scenes in Netflix's latest action-comedy hit.
The streaming series - which debuted on the platform in late November - follows a team of elite operatives celebrating the successful thwarting of a terrorist plot in Las Vegas. However, they find out the next morning that things may not be as clean and clear as initially thought.
Hennig plays Ava Winters, a CIA officer and the team leader seen in the series engaging in some unsavory activities - something that leaves her character going commando for much of the show.
Shelley Hennig On R-Rated Obliterated Scenes
Speaking in a recent interview, Shelley Hennig from Netflix's Obliterated discussed baring it all for the camera in the series.
During a conversation with journalist Kyle Meredith, Hennig said she had to partake in more R-rated sequences - particularly her nude love scene with Nick Zano in the premiere episode - something for which she sends "[her] apologies" to "[her] family in Louisiana:"
“That was certainly a discussion, and the girls were like, ‘Okay, who’s going to show boobs? Who’s going to show butt? Who’s going to…’ That’s not how this went down. I decided what I felt comfortable with, and it’s definitely more than I’ve done before. So, my family in Louisiana, my apologies."
She noted though that, despite going further than she previously had on a series, she "felt safe" and that it "makes sense in the tone of the show:"
"But it makes sense in the tone of the show, and we all felt so safe. It starts from the top. I mean that. Jon, Josh, and Hayden, they’re just magical."
The Obliterated actress then recalled meeting series creators Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg years ago while they were working on the American Pie sequel, American Reunion, feeling comfortable with the producers even back then:
"And I remembered the other day, the first time I met Jon and Hayden, they were casting ‘American Reunion.’ You know, ‘American Pie?’ I went out for that in like 2012. So, I remember going in for it - I was testing with Chris Klein - and my character was on molly and they were just like, ‘Go for it! Whatever you want to do.’"
While not getting a part in the movie, she remembered going out for the film, playing a character who was on molly and infamously "humping a chair" during her audition - something that would become an in-joke between her and her manager:
"And I just remember there was a chair there, and - at one point - I just started humping the chair as though the chair felt good because you’re on drugs. And then I leave, and I call my manager, and he’s like ‘How’d it go?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, great. I like humped a chair.’ He was like, ‘I’m sorry, what?’"
Hennig clarified that this inside joke became a point of reference for auditions for her and her manager, establishing when the actress gave it her all in an audition:
"My point is, that became the bar between my manager and I. Like, how did your audition go? Did you hump a chair? Not actually, but like that set a standard. Did you just give it all that you have within reason?"
Hennig joked, now, "all these years later" it is not humping a chair she is doing on-camera, but "humping other things:"
"And that started with John and Hayden. Cut to many, many, many years later, I’m humping other things in the show."
Hennig also joked about her nude scenes in an interview with Collider, joking, "Everyone had to do something like that in the show:"
“Allison is just a dream. She is so sweet, and she is so great. She gets to play two different roles essentially, and she killed it. She’d have us giggling. Oh, who am I missing? Terrance. Nick is hilarious. Everyone’s funny. Everybody brought something.
The other girls showed their tits. I showed my butt. Terrence had to do a prosthetic situation. Nick showed his butt. Everyone had to do something like that in the show.”
Did Obliterated's Cast Have To Get Naked?
While watching Obliterated's eight-episode run on Netflix, it is not hard to miss the nudity from its cast.
Of course, taking place in Las Vegas, there is a certain level of debauchery expected, but there is still a surprising amount of R-rated content across the series' first season.
Hennig alone appears with some level of nudity or another in at least two of the series' eight episodes.
But she and the rest of the cast seem completely comfortable with baring it all in the hit series.
As Hennig put it, everyone felt "safe" and "comfortable" through the whole process, and that is most important.
These sequences that involve nudity or sex on-screen are highly scrutinized behind the scenes, involving intimacy coordinators and incredibly detailed breakdowns of what will and will not be asked of by the talent.
As evidenced by her response to the idea of her nude work on camera, Hennig is quite happy with how it all went, even if she has to jokingly offer an apology to Mom and Dad back home.
Obliterated Season 1 is streaming now on Netflix.
