Adwoa Aboah reveals she was secretly pregnant while filming sex scenes in Lena Dunham's new series Too Much - as she poses with co-star Emily Ratajkowski in sexy shoot
The pair both star in the upcoming 10-parter and this week spoke to NET-A-PORTER's digital title, PORTER for their latest cover story about making the project.
Too Much follows Jessica (Megan Stalter), who moves from New York to London after a breakup and meets new love interest Felix (Will Sharpe).
Model turned actress Adwoa, 33, plays Felix's other love interest Linnea in the series and has described filming some of her first scenes where she was wearing an S&M outfit.
She told the publication: 'My first scene where you're introduced to me was this weird sex scene with Will, and Lena directing it.
'Doing that while pregnant was so mad, but it was also great that it was my secret that no one knew. When I tell my child, they're gonna be like, that is so crazy, you know?'
She added: 'I just had the absolute best day, and [Lena] lets you play and improvise. Will is just so easy to act off.'
She welcomed her first child Shy last year with her partner Daniel Wheatley.
For the cover shoot Adwoa and model and actress Emily, 34, both posed together in matching black bodysuits.
As Emily spoke in the interview she delved back into her modelling past as she admitted she now feels that fashion is quite 'performative'.
She added that she thinks it's shocking that models don't have a union and that often young girls are 'being taken advantage of' in the industry.
For her solo shots she showed off her incredible figure in a black bra and briefs set while in another she slipped into a white bodysuit.
Emily is set to star in a new Netflix series titled Too Much, which has been created by Girls icon Lena.
The series is scheduled to be released on Netflix on July 10th, with the model playing a character named Wendy in the series - the glamorous new girlfriend of main character Jessica's ex.
The star was given creative control while filming the new series, which she explained was something she really 'valued.'
She recently told ELLE: 'In my twenties, I didn't have a lot of it in my career. Now, I like making things and I like not being an addition to them.
She said of the scene: 'Doing that while pregnant was so mad, but it was also great that it was my secret that no one knew. When I tell my child, they're gonna be like, that is so crazy, you know?'
'With Lena, I got to shape the character so much, which was really fun. It gave me a bigger role than just an actor for hire.'
Elaborating on her experience on set, she said: 'Lena leans into some of the more 'feminine' ways of directing – over communication, consideration of everyone on set.
'Instead of being this domineering presence, her power lies in grace and in the ability to make everyone feel comfortable.'
Last month Lena candidly reflected on her 'last affair' ahead of her semi-autobiographical Netflix series.
In a story for British Vogue 's July issue, the writer and producer, 39, admitted to 'wrecking herself on male attention' before finding love with her husband Luis Felber.
Lena and Luis, 38, met in January 2021 on a blind date - after being set up by friends - and tied the knot in September 2021.
But before meeting her husband and finally getting her 'happy ending,' the actress recalled her 'boy craziness' that led her to 'stop trusting herself.'
She explained: 'Even now, I can't be sure. It's not that I don't trust my husband or our life – I do, very much.
Too Much follows Jessica (Megan Stalter), who moved from New York to London after a breakup and meets new love interest Felix (Will Sharpe) (both seen in recent trailer)
'It's that at some point along the way, wrecking myself again and again on the rocky shores of male attention, I stopped trusting myself.'
Lena previously explained why she cast Megan Stalter instead of herself in her semi-autobiographical series Too Much.
'I was not willing to have another experience like what I'd experienced around [my HBO series Girls] at this point in my life,' the producer-star explained to the New Yorker.
'Physically, I was just not up for having my body dissected again. It was a hard choice, not to cast Meg — because I knew I wanted Meg — but to admit that to myself. I used to think that winning meant you just keep doing it and you don't care what anybody thinks. I forgot that winning is actually just protecting yourself and doing what you need to do to keep making work.'
Lena continued: 'I remember looking at Meg and being, like, "You are my muse. You inspire me every single day to go home and tap out pages upon pages." I definitely don't want to be my own muse.'
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Daily Mail
31 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Struggling Yankees star's dad gets into explosive argument with Mets fan
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
The fisherman aesthetic: anglercore is everywhere – but does it suit me?
It was, in the end, a fashion trend awaiting better weather. Now that summer is here, the 'fisherman aesthetic', long heralded as one of the key looks for 2025, has finally arrived. Or has it? Standing on the beach at Hastings, with a stiff wind blowing into my face, I am adding one layer of fishing gear on top of another while holding my fisherman's hat on my head, gently overheating under a hazy sky. I'm not sure this is what Vogue had in mind when it predicted that 'the menswear customer will take to water, embracing the 'fisherman aesthetic'' earlier this year. I can't see anyone else on the beach embracing it. Then again, I can't see anyone else on the beach. These early predictions have now hardened into a mantra. 'What started as a humble nod to weathered knit sweaters, sturdy boots and utilitarian outerwear has turned into a full-fledged movement,' declared lifestyle website The Velvet Runway. 'Practical gear like rainboots, work jackets and canvas totes abound,' said Cosmopolitan. 'Less yacht club, more fishing dock,' said InStyle. By the end of March, Veranda magazine felt able to confirm that 'the fisherman aesthetic now reigns supreme in both fashion and interior design'. However, when you investigate the origins of fisherman chic, it quickly becomes clear there are two main branches to the trend. The first is more of a general nautical vibe than a uniform: striped tops, baggy khakis, boat shoes, cable knits. The Daily Mail cited 'the naval-inspired looks on the recent runways of Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren and Proenza Schouler' as sources for the trend, said to be an offshoot of the 'coastal grandma' look (no, me neither) from a few years ago, which was largely confined to women's fashion. It's beach-friendly, casual and understated (Diane Keaton in the film Something's Gotta Give is apparently an inspiration for it). People dedicated to showing you how to get the look on TikTok are at pains to point out that you may well own most of the stuff already. The second strand, what might be termed the male version of fisherman chic, comes at it from another direction, specifically fly-fishing. New York menswear boutiques such as Blue in Green have been selling out of the multi-pocketed fishing vests favoured by anglers. According to the Washington Post, outfitters catering to fly-fishermen have recently seen revenue boosted by sales to men who don't fish, but are keen to adopt a look the paper dubbed 'anglercore'. Where these traditional outfitters might once have been pleasantly bewildered by all the extra online traffic, the industry is catching on. Streetwear brands and angling companies have begun collaborating on outdoor clothing lines. Last autumn, the Canadian rapper Drake, through his Nike brand Nocta, produced an actual fly-fishing reel in collaboration with Abel Reels. Where the womenswear strand of fisherman chic seems to be more about inspiration – using a nautical theme as a jumping-off point – the menswear seems more like direct occupational appropriation – literally buying the stuff real fishermen use. As the stylist and fashion writer Peter Bevan sees it, the authenticity of the gear is the point of this angler aesthetic. 'If, say, Gucci did a fishing jacket, and they bought that one, it's almost like them faking it,' he says. 'When it comes to workwear, men just like to buy into the proper brands that do it and the real type of workwear, rather than anything that feels manufactured.' There is an inverted aesthetic at work: in most cases the clothing is purely functional; it has no style per se, only a kind of perceived integrity. The Japanese workwear brand Montbell uses the slogan 'Function is beauty', which is one way of saying: this stuff looks this way for a reason. Fly-fishing vests, for example, are often cropped weirdly short, but that's not a style – it's so the pockets don't get wet when you're standing up to your ribcage in a river. And they aren't covered in pockets because pockets are cool; it's because anglers need storage for all the kit they carry into the water. 'You're using floats, you might use sinks, you've got spools of nylon,' says Mark Bowler, editor of Fly Fishing & Fly Tying magazine. 'You've got a dry fly box, you've got a nymph box, you've got a lure box. You'll have scissors, forceps, nips. You've got numerous tools, almost medical, dangling off the waistcoat. You might have a hook retriever in there …' There is an obvious irony to this extreme functionality, in that few, if any, of the influencers wearing fly-fishing vests on the streets of Brooklyn will ever use the garment for its intended purpose, or even know what that is. '… You've got leaders, sight indicators, magnifiers, your sandwiches,' says Bowler. 'You might have a water bottle in the back of it, because it's got pockets at the back. There might be scales in there for weighing fish, or tungsten putty.' On the beach in Hastings, I am having a certain amount of trouble rationalising the two branches of the fisherman aesthetic. My jacket would suit weather more foul than I'm likely to encounter all year. Meanwhile, the Schöffel fly-fishing shirt I'm wearing looks like something Nigel Farage might go canvassing in, only it's made of a lightweight, quick-drying polyester. Who knows? Maybe his is too. There is, of course, something immediately satisfying about wearing a technical garment; it bestows a certain sense of competence and expertise all by itself. The Wensum fly vest by Farlows – a British outfitter established in 1840 – has four capacious pockets on the front and a swatch of shearling wool just below the right shoulder which, it turns out, is for hanging your flies on. The Ayacucho Trailblazer vest has no fewer than 10 pockets, and also – somehow – repels mosquitoes. 'Some include a life vest as well,' says Bowler. 'So if you fall in, the waistcoat explodes.' This is a lot of technical overkill for a fashionable piece of streetwear. Even without the capacity for inflation, it would be difficult to find a use for 10 pockets on dry land. But that, I know, is not the point – these things are fashionable because they are technical. In many ways, we have been here before. Workwear, with its utilitarian shape and built-in sense of purpose, is a perennial fashion favourite. Brands such as Carhartt and Dickies have made a fortune selling blue-collar style to men who can't change a plug. And the fisherman aesthetic is nothing new: the Aran knit was Vogue's celebrated jumper of 2015 and fisherman's scarves, hats and oilskins were big items in 2016. GQ declared fly-fishing 'the next wave in menswear' back in 2019. Bowler recalls an even earlier collision between fly-fishing and fashion, when Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler wore feathers in his hair during a stint as an American Idol judge. The long rooster feathers he chose were also used by the fly-tying industry. 'Everybody wanted them,' says Bowler. 'And we couldn't get them because all the suppliers were being rung up by hairdressers saying, 'Look, we'll pay anything for them.'' News of the current fashion for angling gear has also reached Bowler, although he is not exactly persuaded. He doesn't see a future in which he treats angling gear as a look to be seen in. 'You know what, Tim? When I go fishing, the last thing I want to see is another person.' However, he has noticed that even the most technical gear is becoming more fashion-conscious. 'You'd find it hard to look stylish in waders,' he says. 'But even waders are becoming more fitted, in lighter materials. They used to be like PVC with wellies on the end, and now they're kind of a fitted, breathable material. You actually attach boots to the bottom of them and they have a belt, you know, which gives you a bit more shape.' Indeed outfitters, including Montbell, produce chest-high fishing waders you might feasibly wear to a gallery opening. Another Japanese clothing company, South2 West8, is known for producing stylish gear that will also serve you well on the river. Although if I owned a £358 fly vest (currently on sale at £250), I don't think I'd want to get it wet, especially when you can buy a 'real' vest from an angling supplier for as little as £25. Could an interest in the clothes, as the Washington Post dares to suggest, eventually foster a corresponding interest in fly-fishing? Could the gear lead the hipsters to the sport? Bowler has seen nothing to support that notion. He acknowledges that while angling has a higher profile these days (thanks, in part, to Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer fishing on television), an interest in fly-fishing is not the same thing as fly-fishing. 'The number of fishermen – it's not booming,' he says. 'It's dwindling, in fact.' It's the same story on the sea. In the 1980s, Hastings boasted a fishing fleet of more than 40 vessels, but the ones I'm using as a backdrop for my fashion shoot are reputedly among the last five or six still regularly working. It would be a shame if, in 10 years' time, all that people know about fishing is the clothes. While the nautical movement and the fisherman aesthetic may be two distinct trends, independent and coincidental, they do have one thing in common, and it ain't fishing. Both looks are essentially about wealth. Fly-fishing chic, with its checked shirts, waxed Barbour jackets and old-fashioned gear, mimics the relaxed vibe of the landed gentry. Like the coastal grandma trend that is said to have spawned it, the fisherman aesthetic is really an attempt to appropriate moneyed understatement. 'I think fashion is generally obsessed with wealth recently,' says Bevan. 'There was stealth wealth, the old-money aesthetic, quiet luxury, equestrian-inspired womenswear collections. It feels like one side of this is an extension of that.' Essentially the two looks project the same vibe: tell me you're rich without telling me you're rich, even though you're not actually rich. Even that isn't the whole story: walking back from the beach, through Hastings Old Town, I am suddenly struck by the number of men my age – tourists, mostly – wearing fly-fishing vests. And they're not doing it ironically or because they genuinely aspire to the angling life, or because they're trying to project quiet luxury. They're doing it because they like pockets.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Civilisations returns with unprecedented access to the British Museum's collection
At a moment when we all fear the civilisation-threatening power of pandemics, autocracy and technological transformation, Civilisations: Rise and Fall, produced by BBC Studios, examines why four famous and mighty civilisations in the past found themselves on the brink of disaster, and how the art and artefacts they left behind hold clues to explaining their fate. Each programme looks at the rise of a different great civilisation and explores the factors that led to its decline. From Ancient Rome to Cleopatra's Egypt, via the samurai of Japan and the lost world of the Aztecs, audiences will discover rare and beautiful art and artefacts from each culture. All objects that feature in the series are in the British Museum thanks to behind-the-scenes access to spaces most visitors never see. These artefacts take us to very particular moments of civilisational transition, as societies confronted upheaval and endured radical change in a bid to safeguard their own futures. Across four episodes, interviews with experts, key academics and curators are combined with bold drama-reconstructions to follow the clues in these treasures that explain why each culture fell from power, and whether these relics can help us understand the risks we face today. Contributors include Dominic Sandbrook from The Rest is History podcast, artists Antony Gormley and Edmund De Waal, co-host of The Rest is Politics podcast Alistair Campbell, Radio 4's Making History presenter Iszi Lawrence and academics and authors including Camilla Townsend, Mark Ravina, Shushma Malik and Salima Ikram. Featured artefacts from The British Museum's world-famous collection include the double-headed serpent of the Aztecs, the Meroe Head of Augustus, a mummified crocodile from Ancient Egypt and a newly acquired set of samurai armour from Japan. Suzy Klein, Head of BBC Arts and Classical Music TV, said: 'A new series of Civilisations is always a significant moment for BBC Arts and this incarnation feels particularly timely in our own uncertain age. With unprecedented access to the British Museum's collection, Civilisations: Rise and Fall makes the case that museums are more relevant than ever: they are repositories of human memory, time-capsules – a crucial way for us to understand the past and how we might ensure the future of our own civilisation.' Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the British Museum said: 'We were delighted to collaborate with the BBC for the landmark Civilisations series, and bring some of the most incredible objects in the British Museum's collection to the forefront in telling these global stories. I hope the series captures the imagination of young and old alike, and that we engage whole new audiences with our collection – a collection which shows how history connects us all, something which is now more relevant than ever.' Alexander Leith, Executive Producer, BBC Studios Specialist Factual, said: 'It's a great privilege to be making the next iteration of the Civilisations brand – especially in such close collaboration with the British Museum. The remarkable artefacts they hold offer astonishing points of connection with these past civilisations, and the factors and fault lines on which their fortunes turned – many of which feel disarmingly relevant to our own world. The Civilisations The Fall of Rome When new Roman emperor Honorius ascends to the throne in 395 AD he inherits a system of government that's built one of the most remarkable civilizations in history. For over 400 years the Roman Empire has ruled a vast territory that crosses three continents and encompasses a multitude of peoples and languages. Keeping this disparate whole together is a massive challenge, but decisions taken by Honorius' predecessors have opened up alarming fault lines within the system. Now a series of shocks and threats are colliding in a perfect storm that will see the weakened city of Rome fall to foreign invaders for the first time in 800 years. The Last Days of the Ptolemies in Egypt In 51 BC Cleopatra becomes Queen of Egypt – and Pharaoh – amid a crumbling dynasty plagued by infighting, betrayal, and political chaos. She navigates a treacherous web of family rivalries and Roman interference. Determined to preserve Egypt's independence, she forges bold alliances with Julius Caesar and later Mark Antony, two of Rome's most powerful men. Her reign marks both a last stand for the Ptolemaic dynasty and the dramatic end of three millennia of Pharaonic rule in Egypt. The End of the Samurai in Japan 1853 CE. For centuries, Japan has been cut off from outside influence. In that time the West, and much of the rest of the world, has made extraordinary leaps forward in science, industry and military technology, while Japan remains a feudal medieval society. At the heart of this feudal system are the samurai – warrior knights funded by the state. But when giant American steamships arrive on Japan's shores, the days of the samurai are numbered. The Collapse of the Aztec Empire 1519. Under the strong leadership of Emperor Moctezuma the great Aztec civilization reaches its zenith. The jewel in the crown is the beautiful island city of Tenochtitlan built in the middle of the lake Texcoco, a melting pot of extraordinary arts and culture - home to some 100,000 people. But Moctezuma's empire is fragile. He relies on ritual wars, gathering tribute and maintaining social and religious order through slavery and sacrifice. In doing so he has tightened his grip on the largest South American empire the world had ever seen - but he has made many enemies. The arrival of the Spanish in 1519, under Hernan Cortes, will prove disastrous for the Aztecs. Civilisations: Rise and Fall is a BBC Studios Specialist Factual Unit production for BBC Arts, with BBC Studios handling global distribution. The Executive Producer is Alexander Leith, the Series Producer is Tony Mitchell, and the Production Manager is Emma Hyland. It was commissioned for the BBC by Suzy Klein, BBC Head of Arts and Classical Music. The Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Alistair Pegg. Founded in 1753, the British Museum was the first national public museum in the world. The collection tells the stories of cultures across the world, from the dawn of human history, over two million years ago, to the present. Objects range from the earliest tools made by humans and remarkable finds from the ancient world to more recent acquisitions from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, as well as the national collections of prints and drawings, and coins and medals. BBC Studios Specialist Factual Productions is a bespoke unit making premium output in the history, art, music and culture space. The work is underpinned by journalistic rigour and specialist knowledge, bringing together diverse voices to ignite conversation and challenge preconceptions. Recent titles include the Grierson Award winning Inside Our Autistic Minds, the RTS winning Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World with Public Enemy's Chuck D, the true crime / natural history hybrid The Great Rhino Robbery and cold war thriller Secrets and Spies: A Nuclear Game. AM2 Follow for more
