After Poldark's body buffer, now there's a make-up artist for... Dominic's derriere! Old Etonian actor West has revealed he is getting help looking good for the cameras in The Affair 

By Caroline Graham In Los Angeles For The Mail On Sunday

Published: 16:40 EST, 9 May 2015 | Updated: 06:58 EST, 10 May 2015

Since finding fame in Hollywood, British actor Dominic West has become something of a pin-up.

But the Old Etonian has revealed that he’s been getting a little expert help looking good for the cameras – including having a make-up artist to ‘touch up’ his backside.

‘You know, she gives it a nice sheen,’ he said.

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Since finding fame in Hollywood British actor Dominic West has become something of a pin-up. But looking good takes work - including having a make-up artist ‘touch up’ his backside (in The Affair with  Ruth Wilson)

Since finding fame in Hollywood British actor Dominic West has become something of a pin-up. But looking good takes work - including having a make-up artist ‘touch up’ his backside (in The Affair with  Ruth Wilson)

Female viewers – and even his British co-star Ruth Wilson – have gushed over the 45-year-old’s naked derriere in raunchy new American drama, The Affair.

But West says that filming is not as sexy as it seems. ‘You stand there stark naked and a girl, a make-up girl, paints your body. It’s part of the essential ridiculousness of doing sex on TV,’ he explained.

‘It’s a ridiculous situation to be lying almost naked with an almost stranger, surrounded by people with booms, microphones in your face and having your butt made up.’

His revelations follow the disclosure that Poldark star Aidan Turner had his six-pack enhanced by a make-up artist buffing it up with fake tan on the set of the BBC’s period blockbuster.

In both cases the cosmetics have helped make sex symbols of the actors – even if West admits to finding his heartthrob status ‘funny and unexpected’.

Poldark star Aidan Turner had his six-pack enhanced by a make-up artist on the set of the period blockbuster

Poldark star Aidan Turner had his six-pack enhanced by a make-up artist on the set of the period blockbuster

Wilson publicly praised her co-star’s ‘pert derriere’ when she won a Golden Globe for best actress for The Affair earlier this year, telling a Hollywood audience: ‘Dom, your a*** is something of great beauty.’

But the 33-year-old has also spoken of the inequality in Hollywood, where women are asked to strip more often than men.

Wilson said women have to ‘provide the titillation’ because men’s private parts cannot be shown on screen, but breasts can.

‘It’s assumed that women get their breasts out and have to get their breasts out. I balk at that. It’s unnecessary and unfair,’ she said.

The actress also said there was sexism in showing close-ups of women’s ‘orgasm faces’ while men are rarely asked to do so: ‘I kept insisting, why have I always got to do the orgasm face?’ There should be a male orgasm face. It’s unfair.’

West, who shot to fame on The Wire, conceded that ‘there’s a lot of sex in the show, inevitably, because it’s called The Affair’, but both stars said they were keen to ensure sex scenes were not gratuitous.

Wilson added: ‘These scenes need to have a narrative as much as any other scene so, for Dominic and myself, every time it came up, we asked “Do we need this? What are we saying with it?”’

The Affair starts on Sky Atlantic on Wednesday.

Viewers – and even his British co-star Ruth Wilson – have gushed over the 45-year-old’s naked derriere

Viewers – and even his British co-star Ruth Wilson – have gushed over the 45-year-old’s naked derriere