The entertainment industry places as much pressure on men to look slim in nude scenes as on women, the actor Richard Madden has said.

Speaking to Vogue, Madden railed against a trend he admitted he was a part of. “We’re projecting a very unrealistic body image,” he said. “I find myself with actor friends – after we’ve done a kind of barely eating, working out twice a day, no-carbing thing for these scenes, looking at each other and going: ‘We’re just feeding this same shit that we’re against.’”

Madden continued by saying that male actors are pressured as much as their female counterparts by producers eager for them to appear as lean as possible. “It doesn’t just happen to women,” he said, “it happens to men all the time.” Madden reported that he had often been told to “lose weight and get to the gym” when taking on roles.

Madden is best known for his work in Game of Thrones and Bodyguard. He co-stars as Elton John’s one-time manager and lover in the forthcoming biopic Rocketman, which is rumoured to be premiering in May at Cannes.

Reports last month suggested that Rocketman director Dexter Fletcher was under pressure to omit a scene in which Madden and Taron Egerton, who plays John, lie in bed naked together in order to secure a lower age rating in the US.