Ellen Lister

How do you enjoy a socially distanced kiss on screen? Come to that, how do you film a socially distanced murder? And, between takes, can robots carry out COVID testing? These are just some of the perplexing issues that actors, writers and directors on film and TV sets have been grappling with of late.  Hollywood productions, and their stars, haven’t been immune to the on-set stresses, an increasingly surreal side-effect of the pandemic. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence have been pictured wearing full plastic face visors on set in Boston for the forthcoming Netflix comedy Don’t Look Up.

Britain is about to have a new leading man. Robert Pattinson, who made his name more than a decade ago in the UK in the Harry Potter films, and then in the US in the Twilight films, has finally emerged as a bona fide, grown-up film star. Following hot on the heels of his starring role in Tenet, Christopher Nolan’s cinema-saving summer blockbuster, Pattinson will be on our sitting room screens this September alongside Mia Wasikowska in The Devil All the Time on Netflix, a psychological thriller produced by Jake Gyllenhaal. Then, in 2021, he’ll appear in his biggest role to date: The Batman. In donning the iconic superhero’s black Batsuit and cape, Pattinson will join a historic list of actors that includes George Clooney, Michael Keaton and Christian Bale.

I remember how I felt the first time I saw Daisy Edgar-Jones’ nipples. Sitting on my sofa at home during lockdown, watching the BBC Three adaptation of Sally Rooney’s prize winning novel, Normal People, my jaw dropped as Edgar-Jones casually stretched an arm above her head, her bare chest fully exposed towards the camera. “She’s so brave!” I shouted out of nowhere, at my boyfriend. “What?” he replied, eyes glued to the screen, lost in his own (potentially quite different) stream of thought. Whilst both Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal appear in the nude throughout the series, it was Edgar-Jones’ full frontal nakedness in particular that shocked me.Having worked on film and TV sets when I was her age, I know how tough it is.