Onscreen nudity and intimacy scenes can be a polarizing topic for actors in Hollywood. While some are fully on board with stripping down in front of the cameras, others take a hard stance about keeping their clothes on — or at least using a body double. Here are 20 actors who have either appeared naked in TV or movies, or will never make it happen:
1.
To start, Penn Badgley requested fewer sex scenes during Season 4 of You out of respect for his wife and marriage. “My desire would be zero [intimate scenes], to go from 100 to zero,” he said.
Season 5 marked the show’s final installment, and the actor compromised on his no-sex-scene rule. “My desire is that least as possible, but if it’s necessary, that’s the show we all sign up to make,” he said. “So, let’s make sure it’s vital, let’s make sure it’s important, it’s deliberate. And we did.”
2.
Robert Pattinson not only got naked, but actually jerked off on camera in Little Ashes. “My orgasm face is recorded for eternity,” he said. The actor couldn’t fake it because it “just doesn’t work.” He thought the un-simulated scene would ruin his acting career, but obviously, that’s far from the truth because he’s been quite successful in Hollywood so far.
3.
Vanessa Hudgens refused to do another sex scene after her threesome scene with James Franco and Ashley Benson in Spring Breakers. “It was very nerve-racking for me,” she said. “I told my agent that I never want to do it ever again.”
4.
Demi Moore left nothing to the imagination when she stripped down in The Substance. She credited costar Margaret Qualley for helping her feel comfortable during the “vulnerable experience.”
“I had someone who was a great partner [with whom] I felt very safe. We obviously were quite close — naked — and we also got a lot of levity in those moments at how absurd those certain situations were,” she said. “But ultimately, it’s just about really directing your communication and mutual trust.”
5.
Megan Fox has opted out of roles with racy scenes she’d rather never have her family see onscreen. “There are some good projects I’ve read that are with talented people, talented directors, but the things the women are required to do in the movie are things I can’t have my sons ever know or see,” she said.
6.
Ben Affleck had some “brief nudity” when he starred in Gone Girl. “This is a warts-and-all movie. It can have no vanity,” he said following a conversation with director David Fincher. “You have to see the naked underbelly of this character.”
7.
You won’t find Samuel L. Jackson baring it all for any of his acting roles. Despite being in over 150 films, he’s never gone full-nude for any of them. And if he had to, he’d likely ask for a “dick double.”
8.
Mikey Madison portrayed a sex worker in Anora and went all-in on being nude for her Oscar-winning leading role. “I was always comfortable, and I also think because Ani was too,” she said. “To me, it was never a thought in my head to be nervous or anything.”
9.
Kaley Cuoco used a body double for her sex scenes in Based on a True Story. She was also pregnant during filming. “I don’t roll that way. I need someone else to do that stuff,” she said. “I’m past that. I’m not doing that anymore.”
“Also, who wants to see that? Not my thing. I’d rather let someone else do it, and that’s what movie magic [is for],” she continued. “We don’t have to do those things anymore. We can have someone else do it, and we can fake our way through.”
10.
Barry Keoghan stripped off his clothes for that iconic ending scene in Saltburn. “It totally felt right. It’s ownership. This is my place,” he said. “It’s full confidence in, ‘I can do what I want in this manor. I can strip to my barest and waltz around because this is mine.'”
11.
After becoming a mother, Keira Knightley isn’t comfortable filming sex scenes if a male is directing them. “I don’t have an absolute ban, but I kind of do with men,” she said. “You can use somebody else, because I’m too vain and the body has had two children now and I’d just rather not stand in front of a group of men naked.”
12.
Emma Stone was nude in many scenes in Poor Things, but she didn’t think that was the most challenging part of her Oscar-winning role. “Figuring out how to walk or eat 60 Portuguese tarts, which the first bite is delicious, but by the end, you really want to puke, or her seeing death and decay for the first time,” she said. “Much more challenging than the nudity, which is the only thing people want to seem to ask me about!”
13.
Due to his Islamic religion, Mahershala Ali nearly turned down The Curious Case of Benjamin Button after learning there was a sex scene in the script. Director David Fincher changed the scene between the actor and Taraji P. Henson, having them kiss and “fall out of the frame.”
“At that time, 15 years ago, I was still like, ‘OK, I can only go up to this point,'” he said. “Just trying to hold a space of respect for my religion.”
14.
Glen Powell stripped naked after a spider was in his shorts during a hiking scene in Anyone But You. “You just have to grip it and rip it on a scene like that,” he said. “You know you’re not going to leave that filming day looking cool, so you just have to embrace it.”
15.
Julia Roberts has never gone fully nude onscreen. For her leading role in Pretty Woman, she requested a body double for the intimate scenes. “I wouldn’t do nudity in films,” she said. “To act with my clothes on is a performance. To act with my clothes off is a documentary.”
16.
Michael Fassbender had no time to feel awkward during nude moments in Shame. “We moved very fast,” he said. “We shot it in 25 days, so I kind of had to get over it and get on with it.”
17.
Anna Kendrick is not on board for stripping down on camera. “I’m not really interested in nudity,” she said. “I’ve never had a problem with simulated sex scenes – that feels like it’s about the character, whereas I only get one body, so nudity is more about me.”
18.
Cameron Diaz appeared naked onscreen for the first time in Sex Tape. “It’s just a butt crack scene,” she said. “I don’t really consider it a nude scene — it’s just my butt! It’s my butt.”
19.
Allison Williams never bared it all while filming Girls. “I just wanted to give Marnie almost all of myself,” she said. “But there were things that felt like they should be mine and felt like they should always be mine.”
20.
And finally, Sydney Sweeney has appeared nude in several roles, including Euphoria, The Voyeurs, and The Housemaid. “I think that the female body is a very powerful thing,” she said. “And I’m telling my character’s story, so I owe it to them to tell it well and to do what needs to be done.”
Which celeb would you add to this list? Drop your thoughts in the comments!
