Deleted Nude Scenes That Would've Changed The Movie

Nudity has been part of cinema since almost the beginning, and there is a lot that goes into filming nude scenes. There are examples of it in mainstream Hollywood movies as early as the 1930s, with films like "All Quiet on the Western Front" and Cecil B. DeMille's "Cleopatra." It's a topic that has always been — and likely always will be — a divisive one, with some arguing that nudity in movies is gratuitous, while others say it has its place and can be artistic in the right context.

Sometimes nudity is planned for a movie but doesn't make it into the final theatrical version. Whether a character or characters had naked moments in the script that were never filmed, or nudity was in an early cut but eventually removed, there are many examples of a movie that doesn't have any nudity at all but could have. It might not seem like a huge deal whether a planned nude scene is included or not — other than the difference between a PG-13 and an R rating — but there are times when the decision ends up having an impact on the movie as a whole, for better or worse. We take a look at some nude scenes that would've changed the movie.

The 2012 ensemble comedy "Wanderlust" is about married couple George and Linda Gergenblatt (Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston) whose fancy New York City life falls apart when the economy does. Looking for a fresh start, they find themselves at a commune full of wacky characters, and comedic hijinks ensue. Among those hijinks are Linda taking part in a topless protest that is captured by television cameras. All you see in the movie is the pixelated version on the news report — but depending on who you ask, Aniston was going to bare all for the scene.

A source at the time alleged that Aniston did shoot a version of the scene where she is fully topless and that the unedited shot was included in the first cut of the film. The source explained that Aniston later begged to have those shots removed, and that — other than the pixelation — she was only to be shown from behind or from the neck up in any shots of her while she was topless. The actor's publicist denied the claims, insisting that the version of the scene in the final movie was the one that was always intended. Either way, having Linda's breasts front and center would've diminished the shock of seeing the blurred-out version during the news broadcast, which was essentially the punchline of that scene. 

For a movie that is a hard R sex comedy, there is almost no actual nudity in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." A woman has one exposed breast during the speed dating scene, but that's about the extent of it. There is even a scene where the primary protagonist Andy (Steve Carell) is watching adult movies donated to him by work pal David (Paul Rudd), and it still shows very little skin. That being said, one of the performers in those videos did bare all, but it was in a scene that wouldn't be seen until the movie's unrated version.

Stormy Daniels, who subsequently became a household name due to an alleged connection to a certain president, is a real-life adult film actress and the woman most prominently seen in David's videos. According to writer and director Judd Apatow, that scene was taken from one of Daniels' existing films. But she was also brought in to shoot a scene specifically for "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" in which Andy has a fantasy about her and the two have a conversation — with Daniels fully topless the entire time. The whole scene was cut from the original theatrical version but restored for the unrated version later released on DVD and digital. It ends up feeling surprisingly uncomfortable and out of place, proving that perhaps excessive nudity isn't required or necessary for a raunchy sex comedy to be effective.

Before discovering the sci-fi niche he's been largely sticking with since 2016's "Arrival," filmmaker Denis Villeneuve had a run of well-received thrillers that culminated in "Sicario" the year prior. Focusing on the war between Mexican drug cartels and the FBI, "Sicario" features an impressive cast, led by Emily Blunt as Special Agent Kate Macer. Both she and co-star Benecio Del Toro were the most frequent targets of praise for the film, with the Rotten Tomatoes consensus stating, "Led by outstanding work from Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro, Sicario is a taut, tightly wound thriller with much more on its mind than attention-getting set pieces."

Villeneuve is no stranger to having women play central roles in his films, and he tends to represent them well in the process. In fact, the director said that "Sicario" screenwriter Taylor Sheridan was asked to change Blunt's character to a man, but Villeneuve advocated for Special Agent Macer to stay Kate Macer. It's unclear what would've happened to the nude scene in the script if Kate had been changed into a man, but it was axed anyway when Blunt pushed against it. The actor told Howard Stern, "[the scene] came out because we didn't agree with it," clarifying that the "we" in question referred to herself and her breasts. Besides, a scene of gratuitous nudity doesn't seem to fit in a film that was otherwise praised for avoiding attention-getting gimmickry.

It may seem like a foregone conclusion that a director's cut is automatically superior to the original theatrical version of a movie. Indeed, cinema history has numerous examples where that is the case. But there have also been instances where a director's cut doesn't seem to add anything of substance to the core film, proving that the restored scenes were originally cut for a reason and the movie is simply more bloated with them included. An example of the latter is "Amadeus," the acclaimed 1984 period biopic that tells a loose version of the life of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). 

In 2002, the film was remastered along with added scenes that had been cut from the original version and re-released to theaters as a director's cut. Among the 20 minutes of restored footage was a previously nixed subplot wherein Mozart's wife Constanze (Elizabeth Berridge) seeks help from composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), who has the clout to further the career of the struggling Mozart. Salieri agrees, but under the heavily implied condition that Constanze will need to reward him sexually in exchange for his help. This leads to a scene where Constanze undresses in front of Solieri. Writing about the director's cut, The AV Club called the moment "both jarring and excessive" while also pointing out how the majority of the director's cut-specific scenes only detracted from the quality and pacing of the original film. 

There's no arguing that one of the most enduring images of the pioneering sci-fi horror classic "Alien" is Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in nothing but a tank top and a pair of panties. But she doesn't spend all that much time in that state — she has a ship and crew to defend against one of the most terrifying monsters in movie history. "Alien" is too busy being a masterclass in building tension and in making its audience fear a monster that they see fairly little of to waste too much time ogling anybody's bodies.

The original script and storyboards for "Alien," however, planned for a lot of sex to be happening within the tight confines of the Nostromo. One of those scenes was partially filmed during Weaver's screen test for the movie. It was reasoned that the crew of the ship would often sleep together not only as a means of bonding but also just out of boredom of being stuck on a spaceship for long periods. It seems that, other than the aforementioned screen test, none of the sex scenes or nudity ever made it off the page. The result is that "Alien" ended up being almost entirely sexless, something that not only set it apart from Scott's next sci-fi film ("Blade Runner") but also many of the horror movies of the day. 

Sofia Coppola quickly established that she was a force to be reckoned with behind the camera. "The Virgin Suicides" and "Lost in Translation" comprised a stellar one-two punch of debut feature film efforts, the latter of which earned Bill Murray his first and thus far only Oscar nomination. But Coppola's third movie, "Marie Antoinette," proved much more divisive, with critics split on the effectiveness of marrying the story of the titular 18th-century queen with a modern soundtrack and actors who not only spoke English but didn't even attempt European accents.

In her performance of Antoinette, Kirsten Dunst was generally praised — with Roger Ebert calling her "pitch-perfect in the title role." Dunst deserves credit for moving into more indie films in the latter half of the 2000s and into the 2010s, whereas she could've probably continued to coast along in rom-coms and other easy paycheck roles. With Coppola, Dunst had a lot of trust in the director's guidance — up to and including allowing her to shoot Dunst's bare breasts while filming "Marie Antoinette." But Dunst's comfort with being topless on camera proved short-lived, and she didn't end up okaying that take for use in the movie. It's for the best, as including the scene would've robbed the character of much of the innocence that made her unfortunate end all the more tragic.