It was one of the most talked-about scenes in "The Undoing": the moment when Matilda De Angelis stands in front of Nicole Kidman completely naked inside a gym locker room. Most young actresses would probably be intimated or uncomfortable with the disrobing, but Matilda said Nicole helped ease any awkwardness.
"Actually I felt pretty comfortable," Matilda, who played Elena Alves, said, according to the Daily Mail. "I knew [director Susanne Bier] would protect me and also Nicole was really kind."
"She's done many, many naked scenes and she helped me a lot," Matilda, 25, said, adding that Nicole told her, "We're not here to judge you. Just imagine you're fully dressed and be confident."
That scene wasn't the only time the Italian actress had intimate moments in the series. In many scenes, she was passionate with Hugh Grant, someone else who she praised for being supportive.
"Sometimes you just have to trust your partner. Hugh said, 'If anything feels excessive or inappropriate, just tell me,'" she recalled. "When you have someone who's so respectful, you're not even worried any more. You just let it go because the scene needs to feel real."
In order to make the scenes seem real, an intimacy coordinator was also on the set.
"He was, like, 'If you're uncomfortable just tell me,'" Matilda said of the coordinator. "And I was, like, 'I'm a bit uncomfortable with you.'"
Prior to "The Undoing," Matilda had appeared in several TV shows and films in Italy. The HBO mini-series, though, put her on the map in the United States. Following the series finale in late November, Matilda praised Nicole on Instagram.
"Thank you so much @nicolekidman for being a constant inspiration," Matilda wrote, "it was so easy to be 'obsessed' with you."
In an earlier post, she said of Nicole, "I can't describe the joy and the honor I feel for acting alongside you. Icon, eternal muse."