Poldark, nipples, nudity and not eating: Heida Reed gets honest

Actress Heida Reed says she's also had her eyes opened to sexual objectification. Photo / Getty Images

Over the past few weeks, Heida Reed has been called a "bitch", "awful" and a "heart-breaker:. The 27-year-old actress has done nothing wrong - but her on-screen character Elizabeth Chynoweth has.

In the hit BBC One drama Poldark, Elizabeth marries the cousin of Aidan Turner's Ross Poldark - thus breaking the popular hero's heart.

Fans have not taken it well.

"I had a look on Twitter after the first episode came out, and it's incredible what people just say, because they don't have any shame," she tells me.

"That was kind of scary to read. It's really addictive - it's really easy to fall into the trap and look again and again. But I was quite good at being. like, 'no'. If you seek out negative things you will absolutely find them if you're in the public eye. It's quite terrifying."

Reed, who comes from a theatre background, says she's also had her eyes opened to sexual objectification.

Sadly it's something most young female actresses find themselves dealing with. But rather unusually, with Poldark, it isn't Reed who's being objectified - it's her male co-star Turner. Women have flooded social media with comments about the actor's bare chest, his manly looks and his scything skills.

"Of course it's nice for everyone involved that he's viewed as a sex symbol or very attractive man. But it's getting a little bit ridiculous," she says. "I think it just undermines the rest of the show.

"The producers had no idea that was going to happen. They never said, 'let's have his shirt taken off and everyone will go nuts'. No, there's a couple of scenes where it's justified. It wasn't a strategy but that's what's happened. We know Aidan and think he's a great actor, and he put his heart and soul into this part."

She says she knows "for a fact that [Turner's] completely baffled by the amount of interest for one photo."

She also thinks it's sexist.

"I don't think that should be allowed, any more than if a woman was in the same situation. And if she was, the media would have a field day [saying] that she's being objectified.

"I think there should be the same standard for both sexes, when it comes to things like this."

Reed feels strongly about sexual inequality. It's why she's currently starring in Scarlet, a play that tells the story of a young woman who is humiliated after a video of herself drunkenly discussing her sexual partners is shared online.

The play covers the socially relevant themes of revenge porn, gendered hypocrisy for sexual standards, and what it means to be a young woman in the 21st century.

"It meant a lot to me," says Reed, who started working on the play with the other actresses (four of them play the same character) a couple of years ago.

"The subject matter was something we had discussed for years and that's kind of why it rings quite true with women. I don't think anyone of us has that personal experience but [writer Sam Freeman] did a lot of research into that and spoke to some women who it has happened to, which is horrible."

For Reed, the play's message is: "About someone who goes on a journey of self-acceptance as a modern woman, who's sexually free but because of what society's like, gets horribly judged by it. She doesn't see anything wrong with her behaviour until she gets shamed for it and she shouldn't have. It's not about the outside world but the choices she makes."

The protagonist 'Scarlet' is acted out by Reed and three other actresses - Lucy Kilpatrick, Jade Ogugua and Asha Reid - all of whom dress in different ways and represent the different sides of the character.

Controversially, the play begins with all four women lying on stage in their underwear.

"We had a problem with it to start off with because we didn't understand," says Reed. "Then we got it, because it's about her stripping off her mask.

"I know we're all wearing quite sexy underwear - but that's Scarlet."

Even so, they found the semi-nudity so difficult they "spent three hours sobbing trying to get over it."

"We absolutely had a melt down when we first took our clothes off in rehearsals," says Reed. "We were in bits. We had no idea how deep this kind of insecurity and fear lies. But it has been quite empowering because it makes you realise we're just bodies.

"The first week I was hardly eating because I wanted to look trim and not feel like I'd just eaten a massive meal before stripping to my underwear. But this week I've had massive bowls of pasta and gone on stage and thought, 'so what?'

Poldark hunk Aidan Turner on set.

"I'm not playing the perfect image of who you want to have sex with. Being in our underwear isn't about sex."

The play seems to have resonated well with women. But Reed thinks some of the men in the audience struggle - particularly if they've come along just because they'd heard it involved four attractive actresses stripping down.

"You see some people show up and think, 'I wonder why you're here'. I think it's quite a slap in the face for them to then show up and that play happens. And they go, 'oh s*** I shouldn't have come here with that intention'.

"But it serves you right, if you're coming for that reason".

The play has made Reed think about her own attitudes towards nudity. She has never had to fully strip off in any role she has played.

In the first series of Poldark, there hasn't been much nudity - though Reed says she wouldn't say no because she doesn't "want to have any limits" on herself as an actor.

"With me, it's not being naked [as a principle that is a problem], it's more like it would be a personal hang up or insecurity that I don't want to be naked because I don't like that bit of my body," she says. "But I don't think that's a good enough reason to not get naked."

It's why she would consider it, though she says it can be a harder decision for other actresses who are forced into it:

"If girls are feeling like they have to do it and not being comfortable, I'm not ok with that. And I know it happens a lot. I do have friends who have had to sign up with big nudity contracts and had to go along with it and it's very sad.

"It's that uncomfortable situation where it's like 'this is a huge part for me and it could take me years to get something like this again if I say no...'

"If you're going to turn it down then someone else will accept it. It's a hard situation to be put into and that's why a lot of girls abandon their morals because they don't want to lose out on a role that could make or break their career."

She says the biggest issue is that male and female nudity is still seen as totally different. A topless woman is classified as 'nude' but a man - like co-star Turner - isn't.

"I don't think women having their top off should be such a big deal," she explains.

It's why she supports the 'Free The Nipple' movement, which is very popular in Iceland - her home country. The idea is that women share photos of their nipples online to try and demystify women's bodies in the name of equality. It was brought into the public eye when Bruce Willis and Demi Moore's daughter Scout, 23, walked naked through New York.

"It was weird because I kind of wanted to participate but at the same time I was like, I don't know if I could handle the publicity," says Reed.

"I was in the public eye a lot during that time because of Poldark and I thought about it, but I couldn't. I'm not there yet but I wish I was and I'd like to be a part of it.

"What I've learned from this play is it's all about what empowers you - whether you're naked, or in a thong on stage."