Star of Netflix's Obliterated Shelley Hennig revealed her one issue with her character's no-underwear scenes in the hit series.
Developed by Cobra Kai's Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald, Obliterated tells the story of an elite joint-special operations squad as they celebrate a successful mission in Las Vegas only to find out Sin City is being threatened by a nuclear bomb.
The series came to Netflix on November 30, headlined by the likes of Shelley Hennig, Nick Zano, and Terrence Terrell in a stellar cast that has to put aside their night of partying - and tomfoolery that comes with it - to save the people of the Nevada desert.
Obliterated Star on Her No-Underwear Scenes
After notably appearing wearing no underwear in multiple scenes of Netflix's Obliterated, series lead Shelley Hennig has spoken out.
In a recent interview with Kyle Meredith, Hennig addressed playing drunk in the hit streaming series, part of which came with going commando for several action scenes.
The actress - who plays CIA officer Ava Winters - revealed that one of the issues with her character wearing no underwear was that "for the rest of the series [she was] doing stunts" in this "short, black dress" which was seemingly not thought through during development:
"And there are certain things that no matter how good everyone is at their job, there’s certain things that happened that you just can’t really predict. And there’s like one scene where I knew that my character was going commando. She’s not wearing underwear. And the problem with that, is then you never see her put underwear on, so then, for the rest of the series, I’m doing stunts in this short, black dress, and she technically has no underwear. So, we didn’t think that through necessarily, but we made it work, and I basically wore Spanx, like biker shorts, the entire time. That way, my legs could, you know, could do my job and be a field agent.”
Hennig said acting intoxicated was easy, citing she had "been drunk before" and got to "bring what [her] experience:"
“I think they just trusted us to bring what our experience is and I’ve been drunk before. I also have this ability when I drink to remain poised and that’s what Ava is until you’re challenged beyond belief. There’s literally a nuclear bomb threatening Las Vegas. You did say it almost reads like a movie. That’s kind of how Jon [Hurwitz], Josh [Heald], and Hayden [Schlossberg] said to view it."
She added, "It takes place over the course of 24 hours" and "that part was really intriguing," but also presented the challenge that if a character did something (like remove their underwear) hours before, they were usually stuck that way for the rest of the series:
"It takes place over the course of 24 hours and it just happens to be eight episodes. And that part, I mean, that’s like the show 24. That part was really intriguing and, I just remember thinking, ‘How are we going to do this?’ I definitely saw that as a challenge, but, I mean, once you’re in it, it was no longer something you thought about, except for the fact that you’re wearing the same outfit for six months… With the exception of flashback scenes and maybe one other scene at the end, but yeah, it’s the same… which actually brought up… you’re figuring it out as you go a lot of the times. I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare."
Hennig remembered she was a "last-minute add" to the series, calling the whole production process very fast and furious:
"I was a last- minute add, and I flew basically straight from Ireland to Albuquerque, and I bought a lot of Amazon undies last year just living from hotel to hotel. I’m like, ‘I am not spending $5 per pair of underwear.’ Anyway, I just remember my really ratchet Amazon underwear and myself going from Ireland to Albuquerque…"
Was It Worth Going Commando in Obliterated?
This no-underwear detail is yet another example of a simple detail in a TV or movie that has a whole system of thinking behind it.
Of course, Shelley Hennig seemingly had no issue with her character wearing no underwear for much of Obliterated's runtime.
However, the small detail quickly spiraled into an entire production contingency plan so the actress could realistically perform her stunts while keeping the continuity of the series set up.
One would have thought if the character was going to go commando for a good chunk of the eight-episode series, she would be forced to wear a "short, black dress" after doing so, especially if she is going to be kicking ass as a CIA officer.
But with every problem comes a solution, and Obliterated's no-underwear production trick... SPANKS!
It makes a lot of sense. Using skin-colored bike shorts permits Hennig to complete the action scenes her character found herself in without a continuity error in sight.
All eight episodes of Obliterated are streaming now on Netflix.
