In an interview with Rolling Stone published Tuesday, the “Eric André Show” comedian opened up about his relationship with the model and the NSFW pic that sent the internet into a frenzy.
“Emily popped up and took that picture. I was really in the moment: I was drinking wine, she started dying laughing, and she was like, ‘I have to take a picture of this,’” he told Rolling Stone.
On Feb. 14, André confirmed his rumored romance with Ratajkowski with a set of risqué Instagram photos: A nude André — whose crotch is covered by heart emojis — lies on a couch holding a glass of wine.
Zooming in, you can see a pair of pants and other clothing thrown onto the rug. Ratajkowski appears in the reflection of a mirror behind André, sticking out her bare bottom.
“She took the picture, we both started cracking up, and she was like, ‘This is iconic’ — she kept saying ‘iconic,’” he continued. “We both agreed this was a beautiful image that we had to share with the world.”
André, 39, reportedly started dating Ratajkowski, 31, in January. They’ve since been spotted kissing on vacation in the Cayman Islands and courtside at basketball games.
In the interview, Rolling Stone mentioned to the comedian the viral photos were “your Titanic ‘draw me like one of your French girls’ moment,” referring to an intimate scene Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet share in the 1997 classic. André agreed.
“There wasn’t much thought behind” the nude photos, but André said they show “what art is about.”
“Art is not intellectual; it’s primal. It has to speak to your hormones as much as it speaks to your mind,” he added. “The beauty of that was the spontaneity. Spontaneity and capturing happy accidents are what art is all about.”
Earlier in the interview André spoke about the confusion over his relationship with the model. The “Disenchantment” actor, who called himself “ugly” and said he “looked like Steve Urkel for the first 20 years of my life,” said it wasn’t all about looks.
“I think that people think attraction is only based on physical appearance, but beauty is only skin-deep,” he said. “Colin [Jost] is married to Scarlett Johansson, and [John] Mulaney is [with] Olivia Munn, so you’d think comedy … works.”