Emily Female Star Makes Her Name
British-born Emily is the female star in the infamous Blurred Lines music video, where she writhes around singer Robin Thicke, has a toy car driven over her back and cuddles a lamb.
And if you’ve seen the uncensored version, you’ll see Emily strips topless to nothing but a skimpy flesh-coloured thong.
Now the success of the controversial video – which has been watched more than 170million times – has given the 22-year-old’s career a boost. And here the beauty shows off her amazing figure once more, modelling for US lingerie firm Frederick’s Of Hollywood.
Emily says: “I want to be a model who breaks boundaries. I’m not typical. I’m not 5ft 10in. I’m not an A-cup.
“I think the industry is moving towards this direction.
“Basically, I want to be successful in this industry so that down the line I can invest in other projects, like movies that I love or an artist or a photographer."
Emily was born in London to a Polish father and a British mother who worked as an English professor and writer.
Her unusual surname comes from her mixed heritage, but Emily insists it is easy to pronounce.
“The J is silent,” she says. “That’s the trick. Occasionally people get it right on the fi rst try, just through random luck.
“People have told me to change it over the years, but my dad is always saying: ‘Never change your name.’
“My middle name is O’Hara so it’s a pretty epic name. Emily O’Hara Ratajkowski.”
The brunette was brought up in California but often visited Europe as a child, spending time in Bantry, Ireland, and Mallorca. She got into modelling when she was 14.
After posing nude for the cover of the US magazine Treats, Emily landed a role in Maroon 5’s Love Somebody video and was talent spotted to be in Robin Thicke’s now legendary video.
But on hearing she would have to be naked, Emily originally said no.
“On paper it sounded pretty crazy,” she says. “It was naked girls dancing around, and I didn’t know what it would actually turn out like.
“I turned it down, and then two days later the video director Diane Martel called my agent and was like: ‘Look, just let me meet with her.’ We really got along and I was like: ‘You’re the person in charge of this? Cool!’
“Then, when the rate was negotiated, we sort of decided: ‘Well, it can’t hurt you.’
“It’s pretty funny, because it obviously didn’t hurt me at all.”
Both the song and video have been blasted as being sexist and encouraging rape, but Emily does not agree.
She explains: “On the surface level, the naked women dancing, I understand that can be perceived that way.
“But it was just completely ridiculous, and so much fun. The whole thing is supposed to be silly. Lots of people don’t catch that.
“The way we are annoying them, being playful and having a good time with our bodies – it’s something very important for young women today to have that confidence.
“I think it’s actually celebrating women and their bodies.”