Merkin Overtime: Evan Rachel Wood Struggled With Full-Frontal Mildred Pierce Nudity

I'd set this whole story up with background about Evan Rachel Wood playing Kate Winslet's daughter in the forthcoming, highly anticipated Todd Haynes/HBO miniseries adaptation of Mildred Pierce, but let's not pretend there's much to discuss at this point beyond the dynamite-looking period styles and holy effing crap, full-frontal Evan Rachel Wood?

Yes:

"I was a lot more nervous than I thought I was going to be," Wood said of the shocking scene she has at the end of the series' fifth and final installment opposite Kate Winslet, who stars as Mildred Pierce.

"I hadn't made my mind up if I was going to go full until we were rehearsing, and I was talking to Todd [Haynes, the series' writer and director] - like 'What do you think?' - and he was like, 'I think we're going to be chickening out if we don't just go for it.'"

At a New York press event for the miniseries, a retelling of the classic James M. Cain novel, Wood told us she credits Winslet, who famously bared all in The Reader, for giving her the courage to strip. "I looked at Kate and she was like, 'You've got to do it. Trust me, it's so brave. Put a merkin on and you'll be fine.'" A merkin? "Let's just say, I had to wear a wig because it was in the '30s, and everything had to look like it was in the '30s," explained Wood with a laugh.

Be right back; I swear I'm only going out to program the DVR.

· Evan Rachel Wood Nervous About Full-Frontal Scene In HBO's Mildred Pierce [XfinityTV]