Alex Hassell wears ‘bottom padding’ to play lothario Rupert Campbell-Black in hit series Rivals.The actor’s co-star Hayley Atwell, who plays Rupert’s icy American first wife in the second season of the show, has spilled her co-star’s secrets in a new interview with Tatler.Hayley, 44, stars in a stunning cover shoot for the magazine, lounging around a stately home in Balenciaga and Balmain gowns.The actress is used to a grand setting, thanks to her early roles in Brideshead Revisited, Mansfield Park and The Duchess, and for Rivals she decamped to the manor houses of the Cotswolds.Hayley has admitted she was ‘so nervous’ about embedding herself in with the all-star cast during her first day on set, but after meeting her onscreen ex-husband she knew she would fit in. Leading man Alex, 46, broke the ice with a costume confession, Hayley has explained. Alex Hassell wears ‘bottom padding’ to play lothario Rupert Campbell-Black in hit series Rivals according to his co-star Hayley Atwell who has spilled the hit show’s sectets to Tatler Hayley has admitted she was ‘so nervous’ about embedding herself in with the all-star cast during her first day on set but leading man Alex broke the ice with a costume confession’Alex came up to me and just went, “I’m a bit embarrassed, I have to let new people that come on set know… I’m wearing a bum”. And he pulled up his suit jacket and I was like, “Oh, damn.”.’Hayley explained ‘there were certain scenes, because he’s an Olympian, which called for… a little bit more presentation on that side.”By the end of it, he’d been doing so many squats that he didn’t need the bum any more. It was a graduation. And I thought, “I’m so in love with these people, I’m going to have a great time”.Whilst she was initially star-struck by Alex and the Rivals cast, Hayley explained how she had a years-long friendship with one of the show’s executive producers Felicity Blunt, who was also the late Jilly Cooper’s literary agent. Hayley met Felicity’s then boyfriend, now husband Stanley Tucci during filming for the 2011 movie Captain America: The First Avenger and met Felicity and her Hollywood star sister Emily during a calamitous cast night out in London.’The friendship really began that night because we were walking to a bar after Ronnie Scott’s and I slipped on the cobbled streets,’ Hayley recalled.’I went flying. It was a very committed fall, I could never recreate it,’ she confessed, revealing she landed in some bins and narrowly missed a lamp-post.Once the Blunt sisters saw she was unharmed, they burst out laughing ‘and I was like, “Oh my God, I think I’m going to know these women for a very long time”.’ Rivals returns on November 11 for the final episodes in its second series, and the residents of Rutshire are seeing out the season in style and scandal. Hayley stars in a stunning cover shoot for the magazine, lounging around a stately home in Balenciaga and Balmain gowns Whilst she was initially star-struck by Alex and the Rivals cast, Hayley explained how she had a years-long friendship with one of the show’s executive producers Felicity Blunt Read the full feature in the November issue of Tatler, available via digital download and on newsstands from October 8A new trailer released this week teases episodes 7-12, which will pick up after the mid-series finale and the tragic death of Monica Baddingham (Claire Rushbrook).Lady Monica’s husband Tony (David Tennant) is far from the grief-stricken widower, as the trailer shows the furious TV boss amping up his franchise war against Declan O’Hara (Aidan Turner).’Your wife died in my arms, broken by your games,’ Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) tells him, only for Lord Tony, shotgun in hand, to declare ‘well she’s not here anymore. I’ve got nothing left to do but fight.’ Elsewhere, the country set’s slowest burning love affair between Taggie (Bella Maclean) and Rupert teases a happy ending at least, as the trailer concludes with the two leaning in for a firework night kiss. The first three episodes of six will drop on November 11, with weekly releases of the remaining three episodes following after.