Actress Augie Duke was meant to be a star. It's so obvious and we think you'll agree after this interview. The kind and sexy starlet has been working steadily and keeping her humility through all of her highs and lows. Augie Duke is also a downright sweetheart. The working actress talked to us on the phone even though she had a cold. She's a consummate professional who still wanted to talk to us and we think that's great.

This leading lady LOVES nudity and thinks everyone should be okay with it. We agree!Read below to see how sweet and pro-nudity Augie is and we guarantee she'll be your brand new crush! And be sure to check out her newest work, Blood Craft,out on digital release April 9th!

Skin Central: Tell me a little bit about your journey intobecoming an actress. Did you act when you were a little kid?

Augie Duke: I think people think I did, but weirdly I didn't really. I grew up in the business. Half of my family is in the business and the other half are therapists which is like the perfect LA family. If I needed an actor, I could talk to mom. If I needed a therapist, my dad would be there.

SC: Your mother was actress Fredrica Duke. Did sheencourage you to become an actor?

AD: You know what? No, she never once stage-mommed me. It was my choice to do it. She acted in the 70s and 80s and her father, who had polio, made over 100 films in the studio - some were shit, some were great - his name was Maurice Duke and he's a legend in the business. Oh! Here's a funny story. He at the time was managing and producing and The Beatles came to talk to him and he turned them down! He didn't realize they would blow up!

SC: What! This was when they were younger?

AD: Yeah, he was like 'I don't know if I can manage you guys'.

SC: That's such afunny story.

AD: I know, I know. I wish I was there. He made a lot of really cool movies. He made a movie, not everyone knows it, called Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. But as for acting, it was a choice for me. I startedto talk to myself as a kid. I'd close my door and, like, pretend I was the teacher in my room and talk to the dolls and books in my room like were humans. I thought, 'Wait a second. I like to role-play and pretend I'm somebody else.' So my mom threw me in theater when I was a kid, but I ended up not really working until my 20s.

Everyone thought I was a kid actor, but I really never did it as a kid. I did a little bit of theater and a commercial here and there like a Debbie Gibson Help the Children foundationcommercial.

Augie Duke: The Mr. Skin Skinterview

SC:So when you're too young to really know what's going on?

AD: Yeah!I had a lot of fear with it. I knew it was a tough business.

SC:You knew first hand it was a tough business.

AD: Yeah, and no one really helped me which I think is great. My family told me I had to have talent and do it myself. Then eventually after all the fear, I weened my way slowly into doing commercials and started working in my early 20s.

SC:Have you since collaborated with your familyon a project?

AD: Not really, but recently I might collaborate with my stepfather Michael Berry on a project. He's retired now, but he wrote jokes for Letterman. He sort of wrote me a little thing, a film, so we might collaborate eventually doing that. He's producing it. My mom started to do documentaries about my family and my father later in life and one is called Fuck 'Em about my grandfather and his life. She's obsessed with cats and she did a cat documentary called Six Degrees of Puffy.

SC: That's cute.

AD: Yeah, my mom is a total whackjob, but because of her I'm a whackjob. I'm thankful for it.

SC:So you came to our attention at Mr. Skin with your incredible nude scene in the movie Chemistry and we’d love to know what that was like to film? How do you feel about filming nude scenes in general?

AD: You know what? I have to say this! I think it gets such a bad rap in America about nudity and you know this. Lena Headey, an actress in Game of Thrones that I'm obsessed with (Mr. Skin editorial note: Lena uses a body double for most of her nude scenes in Game of Thrones), said so perfectly on National Women's Day, "We all came out of a nude body. Why are we all so terrified of naked bodies when we all came out of nude bodies?" And we also - to add onto her - we all came out of it nude! So we need to hold each other up and not pull each other down with nudity. It's such a scary topic for people in America and I feel like Europe does it right. I think I belong in Europe. I think I'm supposed to be born in France anddoing films there.

SC: Yeah, the French love movie nudity.

AD: Yeah! Cause they don't judge it as much. Here it's very judged and people judge and have to be secretive. People are like, "Oh you have a nude scene, ooh!" But for me now it's about quality over quantity. You have to choose to do it and go 'hell yes'.

For me, with Chemistry, I was in good hands. It was supposed to be comedy actually and it was supposed to be a special HBO after dark show. I knew I was playing a sex addict so I knew what I was getting myself into. I was working with JeremyKent Jackson who is a full-time comedian so we were just laughing our asses off. It was hilarious to be on set. During that process we treated it like a professional show and like I said I knew I was playing a sex addict. I just kept thinking of Sex and the City and what was her name...?

SC: Samantha?

AD: Yes, if she could do it, I could do it.

SC: If Kim Cattrall can do it, everyone can.

AD: Exactly! And I didn't realize it was going to be super sexualized, but I'm okay with that. I think some people were a little bit judgy about it, but you know what? Oh well. I'm not really having sex with people for godssakes. I'm not doing porn, I'm a professional actor. I'm playing a character.

SC:Have you ever had any hesitation about doing nude scenes?

AD: Because it's so judged here, absolutely. I always want to make sure that if I'm going to do it, especially in L.A. and in America, it has to be with the right program, the right people and it has to make sense. Obviously, if I'm doing a bathtub scene no one is wearing a bra in a bathtub, so I obviously have to be topless in a bathtub. For me, it's more the people judge it so much and that's what makes me uncomfortable. I wish that wasn't the case, but it is and I'm okay with that. I don't judge people for that. I think we have to lessen that a little bit and not be so mean to each other. We're actors and this is what we're doing. Sometimes it calls for nudity and that's okay.

SC:We agree!

AD: I know you do and that's why I was like, 'this is dope, I'm gonna do this'. I think that's great! We're all nude underneath our clothes. Let's just get over it.

SC: Speaking of judgment, how do you feel about critics?

It would be a lie for me to be like, oh I totally ignore them. I was totally picked on in high school, so it always brings me back to that bullying. People can be so mean and I'm like give them a break, they're just trying to make it in their career. They're trying their best, so give them a break.

SC: You just starred in the movie Blood Craft which looks awesome. Can you tell us a little bit about your role?

Well, with Blood Craft, you guys are gonna be super sad. There are some sexy scenes, but not much nudity. It's a movie about two sisters who have suffered abuse as children and decide after their father's death to use witchcraft to get revenge.

SC: Oh, cool!

Yeah! I always get that I look like Fairuza Balk. Madeleine Wade wrote the movie and it's actually based on a lot of things from her real life.

Augie Duke: The Mr. Skin Skinterview

SC: What are your favorite nude scenes that you've done?

I had a reallyfun one in a horror film The Black Room where I'm on a dryer and I'm sexualizing myself on a dryer to kill this guy. I thought it was so funny and fun because I had to manipulate this guy. There's a twist in there, but I'm not going to say it because it gives the movie away. I do it for a reason with James Duval, the actor. I've been lucky and blessed in every sex scene I've ever done because I work with professionals and working actors. It's such a relief to feel like we're doing this together and it's not a big deal.

Augie Duke: The Mr. Skin Skinterview

SC: And who are some of your favorite people you've worked with?

I love working, so there's not a top favorite. I've been so blessed that every single person I've worked with I love. Oh, but one I have to say is such a treat to work with, is Michelle Monaghan. She's quite a lovely human to be around.

SC: Are there people you'd love to work?

AD: Oh, god, yeah. Everybody. I'd be blessed and humbled to work with someone like Tilda Swinton or Cate Blanchett. Or someone like Oscar Isaac. I'm flabbergasted by him as an actor and I'd love to work with him someday.

SC: Who are your celebrity crushes?

AD: I wish I had one, but I was never one of those girls. For me, it's always talent and charisma that make someone super sexy. I had a brief moment where I was very into Tom Hardy. There are a lot of people I had crushes on who have now passed away, but there are so many talented people I have a crush on. Women and men. If you're talented I have a crush on you.

SC: What are some of your favorite movies that inspire?

AD:A Woman Under the Influence with Gena Rowlands. That was super inspiring to me and it inspired me on recent film I worked on called Trauma is a Time Machine. And True Romance, always.

SC: I know you are a very busy person but are there any projects coming up you are particularly excited to tell us about?

AD: Yeah! I'm excited about Blood Craft as well as a movie I did about Steve McQueen, the actor, it's called Chasing Bullitt. And a new project on Netflix that I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about called Messiah that will be out in 2019.We're doing a festival run right now for a film I did calledBurning Kentucky where I play a lost soul named Jolene who has a heroin addiction. I've been working with a lot of female directors and it's a female director on this one.

SC:That's great. Does it feel different or empowering to work with a female director?

I have to be honest, yes. I've done two films with female directors and one music video. Now I have four brothers, I love men and women, but there was something about it that made me feel really safe to explore these characters and go balls out and then take it back if I need to. It was an insane experience and an amazing experience. And it ended up winning Best Picture at the Mammoth Film Festival and then I took away a Best Actress award which has never happened.

SC: That's great!

AD: Thank you. It meant a lot.

SC: Thank you so much for talking to us today, Augie.

AD: Thank you!