Erin McNaught

Status Update
HOMETOWN: Canberra.
BIRTHDAY: May 22, 1982 .
PARTY TRICK: “I can wiggle my ears individually.”
iPOD: “Mostly electro, dubstep, hip-hop, and drum ‘n’ bass. There’s Pink Floyd and old school punk like The Exploited on it, too.”
KARAOKE SONG: “John Denver’s ‘Country Road’. It’s kind of intentional bad singing, at that.”
DRIVES: “Toyota Yaris, It’s a great city car!”
TATTOOS: “I have six. Two on my fingers that say, “Love Again” – it’s about adversity and when things go wrong they can always get better; an anchor on my arm to keep me grounded; swallow on my wrist signifying new beginnings – I got it after a break-up a long time ago; the Gemini symbol on my ankle is self-explanatory; and an umbrella on my foot is just a funny one
– there’s about four or five of us with it.”
HER POISON: “The safe option would be vodka, lime, and soda because if you have a few, that’s the nicest one to wake up from. But I do like Havana Club and ginger beer. Any nice dark rum is good.”
TWITTER: @Erin_McNaught.

Hello, Erin. Firstly, happy birthday!
Aw, thanks!

It’s been four years since your last men’s mag shoot. How did you feel doing MAXIM?
I was pretty nervous leading up to it. Shoots in general are pretty nerve-wracking because there’s always a bunch of people looking at you and you’re like, “Do I look good in this? Did I do OK here?” Having not done it in such a long time made it even more so than usual. But as soon as we got the first shot done, I thought, “Yep, today is going to be a good day”.

Why were you keen to do this shoot?
I’ve always had in my head that I wasn’t quite done with doing photo shoots, and you’re always trying to have that perfect shoot. In the past I’ve done shoots where I’ve been happy but thought, “Hmmm, I could do better here or work on that a bit more.” I also wanted to celebrate turning 30 because it’s such an obstacle for so many women. When you’re in your 20s a lot of women tend to think that when you hit 30 everything starts to decline looks-wise. I wanted to show, that for me, it’s the opposite – I’ve never felt more confident.

How would you describe the theme?
It’s kind of the morning after a party, but not a crazy or trashy party, just a few drinks. And we’re in this beautiful penthouse suite at The Establishment Hotel in Sydney getting room service and celebrating. It’s a nice, sophisticated, beautiful shoot.

Did you prepare for it?
Yeah, I did a lot of soft sand running and a lot of vegetable eating on top of my Dancing With The Stars rehearsals. The dancing itself was keeping me in shape, so I didn’t have to do much. But I’m used to getting in shape for my swimsuit shoots with Mambo. I’m one of their “Mambassadors”, which I love!