Many actors have complained of discomfort caused by the undergarment.
Tamsin Greig has revealed that she refused to wear a corset for her role in Apple TV+ comedy The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.
The restrictive undergarment is frequently used in period dramas for authenticity, having been a prevalent part of society between the 17th and early 20th centuries.
However, they are notorious for being very uncomfortable, and long-term use can take a serious toll on an individual’s health, from reducing lung capacity to causing muscular wasting.
As a result, there has been talk of ‘banning‘ the corset from film and television sets in recent years, although some other performers did wear them in Dick Turpin, according to Greig.
The Friday Night Dinner alum told RadioTimes.com and other press that avoiding the corset was a prerequisite for her to consider signing on for Noel Fielding’s Apple TV+ comedy.
“I’m not a huge fan of corsets,” she began. “I think they are about the historical constraint of females. So that was one thing that I said, when I was offered it.
“I said, ‘I would love to do this [but] I don’t want to wear a corset’, thinking that they would go, ‘well, goodbye then’.”
“But the costume designer, Rosa Dias, who I’ve worked with a number of times, is so elegant and so brilliant and has such a great team around her that she said ‘you don’t have to wear a corset but don’t tell anyone’ – because some people are in corsets.”
Dias is perhaps best known for her work on Netflix’s coming-of-age comedy drama Sex Education, imagining the enviable styles of its core characters that added so much to the distinct look of that show.
Greig added: “She was able to work around my boundaries that I set and just created the most extraordinary palette of sumptuous designs.”
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The comic talent plays Lady Helen Gwinear, who heads up a villainous cabal seeking to put an end to the fledgling careers of Dick Turpin and his eccentric gang of highway robbers.
The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is available to stream on Apple TV+. New episodes Fridays.
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