12 Actors Who Regret Shooting Nude Scenes
Popular culture has long had a complicated relationship with nudity, and that has spilled over into visual media. There are movies and television shows with nude scenes that receive major critical acclaim and win all kinds of prestigious awards, and then there are movies and television shows with nude scenes that are dismissed as seedy and catering to the lowest common denominator. There's also the matter of the actors who are the ones taking their clothes off on screen, and how people view that decision. But how do the actors themselves feel about it?
There's no denying that nude scenes have permanently affected the careers of some actors — sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Either way, with a few exceptions, most actors make the choice whether or not to get naked on screen and how naked they are willing to get on screen. With that in mind, they typically own their choice and don't apologize for it or regret it after the fact. But there have been examples — like the ones that follow — where an actor showed some skin on screen and, for one reason or another, decided later on that they wished they hadn't done so.
Juliette Danielle
Even if you've never seen "The Room" — and if you haven't, what are you waiting for? — you're likely still familiar with some of its best bits. Director-writer-star Tommy Wiseau's "classic" has been meme-ed to death since its release, typically showcasing one of Wiseau's completely bizarre line readings. Perhaps one of the most famous ones is Wiseau shouting "You're tearing me apart, Lisa!" at his onscreen girlfriend, played by Juliette Danielle.
Danielle admits on her personal website that she was initially embarrassed by all the attention she got once "The Room" became a massive cult hit, and tried to stay off the pop culture radar. She seems to have developed a better relationship with and sense of humor about the whole thing now, also speaking highly of the movie's legion of fans. In fact, she even did a Reddit AMA in 2012. Of course, someone asked her the question on everyone's mind, which was whether she ever regretted making the movie. Danielle replied, "I did regret making it only because of the nudity thing."
She also went on to say that what made it so much worse is that Wiseau didn't edit the footage they shot to just a few minutes: "I was so mortified ... literally every last bit of footage was used I think."
Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Sweeney has been very vocal about her decision to get naked on screen, especially in regard to her Emmy-nominated role as Cassie Howard on HBO's "Euphoria." She has rightfully called out the double standards between males and females who take their clothes off for roles, pointing out how much more harshly judged women seem to be for doing so than their male counterparts. Sweeney has also complained about how people overlooked her acting talents on "Euphoria" because Cassie gets naked from time to time, but then those same people watched her on "The White Lotus" — where her character stays fully clothed — and were suddenly able to give her her due.
Though "Euphoria" creator Sam Levinson has faced criticism for what some see as an overuse of nudity, most of the actors who worked on the show have all said that Levinson was willing to tone down or remove an instance of nudity entirely at their request. Sweeney backed this up, telling The Independent, "I've never felt like Sam has pushed it [...] When I didn't want to do it, he didn't make me." But she added that that hasn't always been her experience with feeling uneasy about a gratuitous scene she had to shoot. Though she didn't name the film or TV show in question, Sweeney revealed, "I've had experiences where I want to go home and scrub myself completely raw because I feel disgusting."
Emilia Clarke
HBO's adaptation of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels wasted no time in letting audiences know it wasn't going to pull any punches — particularly in regard to sex and nudity. Emilia Clarke was just 23 years old when she was cast as Daenerys Targaryen on "Game of Thrones," and she definitely struggled in the beginning with some of what was being asked of her for the part. She said she accepted the role before she knew it would require nudity, and admitted to crying before having to film those early sex scenes with Jason Momoa's character. But Clarke also praised her co-star for being extremely sweet and supportive throughout the process.
Still, Clarke says that she never had any regrets about all the nudity she had to do for "Game of Thrones" — that is, until she found herself watching some of it with her family. In an appearance on "Live with Kelly and Mark," Clarke told a funny story about how her parents were giving her a hard time over her character not getting much in the way of interesting storylines during a particular stretch of "Game of Thrones."
Determined to prove them wrong, Clarke sat them down and watched an episode with them that saw Daenerys finally do something impressive — which happened to include her walking through fire completely naked. As soon as she realized that the moment was coming, she instantly regretted choosing to watch that particular episode with her parents.
Jamie Lee Curtis
Despite starring in the movie that helped kick off the horror film boom of the 1980s — a boom that contained a whole lot of topless co-eds — Jamie Lee Curtis didn't get naked in "Halloween," its sequels, or any other scary movies she appeared in. In fact, although she appeared nearly naked in little-known early films like "Love Letters" and "Grandview USA," she also bared almost all on screen for one of her first major Hollywood film roles that wasn't a horror movie of any kind. And that movie was the iconic 1983 comedy "Trading Places."
There is a scene in that movie where Curtis, playing a sex worker named Ophelia, strips down to only her panties with her body in full view. Talking to People in 2022, Curtis reflected on "Trading Places" and that scene in particular. Never one to mince words, Curtis was very honest about the whole thing.
"Did I feel embarrassed that I was doing it? Yes," she said. "Did I look okay? Yeah. Did I know what I was doing? Yeah. Did I like it? No. Was I doing it because it was the job? Yes." She made it clear that it's something she would never do again, in part because she is now a wife and a mother and was neither of those things when she was making "Trading Places."
Mark Rylance
Some movies make it clear that unsimulated sex is happening on screen. Controversial filmmaker Lars von Trier accomplished this in both "Antichrist" and "Nymphomaniac" by making a point to show penetration occurring, although he used adult film actors as body doubles for the real ones. In other cases, it's purely speculation that two actors in a movie had actual intercourse on screen, and the actors themselves either deny it or keep mum on the subject.
The 2001 erotic French drama "Intimacy" opens with what looks like a quite real sex scene, and many believed that to be the case. Interestingly, the journalist husband of the woman (Kerry Fox) in that scene saw fit to rebuff claims that the movie contained unsimulated intercourse in an op-ed he wrote for The Guardian. It's as close as we've gotten to any official statement on the matter. But he also pointed out — and this is something that didn't need pointing out to anyone who saw "Intimacy" — that there is at least one sexual act that does occur in the movie that is plainly shown on screen.
That act was performed on actor Mark Rylance, and he wasn't remotely thrilled about it. He described the experience and the ensuing tabloid backlash from it as putting him in a dark place for several months, as well as being a strain on his marriage, and later said that he wishes he never made the movie at all.
Amanda Seyfried
Actor Amanda Seyfried was asked by the Orange County Register in 2012 if she considered it a dicey career move to play the titular role of adult-film-star-turned-anti-pornography-spokesperson Linda Lovelace in the biopic "Lovelace." She replied, "Not really. Nudity is nothing to me." Seyfried then pointed out that she had previously done nudity in the erotic thriller "Chloe," stating, "When necessary, and when it's done well, people don't notice the nudity." But it's important to note that that was a 27-year-old Seyfried discussing how comfortable she felt being naked on camera, and that things were a lot different when Seyfried was much younger.
In 2022, Seyfried recalled the difficulties of being a teenaged actress in a pre-#MeToo, intimacy coordinator-free Hollywood. She told Net-A-Porter about already being asked to film a nude scene when she was just 19 years old. "Being 19, walking around without my underwear on –- like, are you kidding me? How did I let that happen?" She admitted that she was afraid of rocking the boat so early in her career, and felt she didn't have a choice if she wanted to keep the gig. Seyfried didn't disclose which production the incident occurred on, but given that she didn't bring it up in 2012 when asked about past experiences with onscreen nudity, it seems clear that she'd just rather pretend it never happened.
Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet is aware that she's become known for doing nude scenes. In discussing with the New York Times in 2021 the reasons that she considered retiring from the practice, the Academy Award-winning actor mused, "There comes a point where people are going to go, 'Oh, here she goes again.'" The break proved to only be a temporary one, as Winslet would recreate one of photojournalist Lee Miller's topless photos for the 2023 biopic "Lee" by appearing sans shirt herself.
It's hard to argue which of Winslet's nude scenes as an actor is the most well-known. In her star-making turn in the movie "Titanic," Winslet strips down as her character Rose becomes a nude model for Leonardo DiCaprio's Jack. But despite the fact that the movie made her a household name and effectively launched what became a very prolific and acclaimed film career, Winslet has her regrets about "Titanic."
Shockingly, she's extremely critical of her performance — particularly her American accent — and has said that she wishes she could do the whole thing over again. As for her nude scene, she was body shamed by the media for being seen as not thin enough, which was hard on her at the time. She continues to feel haunted by it, especially when rude fans actually approach with her with stills of the scene and ask her to autograph them.
Casey Wilson
Is it possible for someone to regret being forced to do something that was their own idea to begin with? If you're Casey Wilson, that certainly seems to be the case. The "Happy Endings" star co-wrote the 2013 comedy "Ass Backwards" with fellow funnywoman June Diane Raphael, with the two playing lifelong friends on a wild road trip. At the premiere for the film, Wilson was asked whether she and Raphael wrote anything for the movie that seemed hilarious at the time but took on a whole different light once it came time to actually film it. Wilson had quite the answer to that query.
Staying true to its title, "Ass Backwards" literally opens with a shot of both actors' naked behinds as their characters — Chloe (Wilson) and Kate (Raphael) — urinate on a sidewalk near a highway. Wilson described the moment where she and Raphael were on all fours as a member of the crew applied makeup to their backsides, and suddenly found herself regretting having written the scene. Wilson joked that she would have preferred to use a butt double for herself — while insisting that Raphael didn't need one — but said such a luxury wasn't in the movie's budget.
Anna McGahan
Though not particularly well known in the West, Anna McGahan is a prolific and celebrated actor in her native Australia. Her most famous role is that of real-life sex worker Nellie Cameron in the crime anthology series "Underbelly." More specifically, McGahan appeared in the show's fourth season — subtitled "Razor" — which focuses on the razor gangs that terrorized Sydney in the 1920s.
McGahan was nominated for two Australian television awards for her performance, and it led to main roles in several more series. But despite "Underbelly" seeming to be a boon for her career, McGahan wishes so much of it didn't require her to be naked. In a blog post about the experience and her journey into acting, McGahan wrote, "I had been told that if I wanted to work as an actress, I had to be prepared to get my breasts out." She says that she had initially come to terms with the nudity and sex scenes she had to do for the show, but soon realized one of the downsides to crossing that line.
During a promotional photo shoot, McGahan was topless but wanted to keep her back to the camera. The photographer got frustrated with her, and McGahan says he barked at her, "You're playing a prostitute and you can't be f***ing sexy?" That's when McGahan realized that some people were going to see her differently now that she'd been naked on screen, and she made the decision to never do that again.
Jessica Brown Findlay
Acclaimed historical drama "Downton Abbey" had a huge cast that combined veteran actors and promising up-and-comers. One of the most noteworthy examples of the latter is Jessica Brown Findlay, who played Lady Sybil Branson during the first three seasons of the show in one of her earliest roles. But while "Downton Abbey" marked Brown's first big television appearance, she made her feature film debut in the 2011 drama "Albatross."
Despite receiving acclaim for the role, Findlay would later admit to regretting the moment in the movie where her character flashes her breasts at a store clerk. Moreover, Findlay claims that she didn't know her bare chest would be visible on screen, saying that she was led to believe she'd be shown from behind for the shot. She told U.K. entertainment magazine Radio Times in 2013 (via ABC News), "To be honest, 'Albatross' was naivete and not knowing that I could say no." Though she did appear naked for the television miniseries "Labyrinth" in 2012, she declared in the aforementioned interview that her days of onscreen nudity were behind her.
Findlay did film a steamy sex scene for the 2015 miniseries "The Outcast" that showed brief glimpses of nudity, but her body was largely obscured by shadows, blankets, and the other actor in the scene with her — and it's possible it was actually filmed before she swore off being naked on screen anymore.
Mary-Louise Parker
Just because an actor is okay with doing sex scenes, that doesn't necessarily mean they are okay with being naked on screen. A noteworthy example of this is Sarah Jessica Parker, who filmed plenty of sex scenes over the course of the otherwise nudity-filled "Sex and the City" franchise but never once got anywhere close to being naked herself. Mary-Louise Parker, who played the suburban mom-turned-drug-queenpin on the Showtime series "Weeds," had similar convictions — though she found herself reluctantly breaking them at one point.
During the Season 4 finale of the show, Parker's character is having a conversation in the bathtub and there is a moment where her entire naked body is visible — though her lower private area is obscured by bubbles. Speaking about the scene after the fact, Parker said she was opposed to showing her breasts and quarreled with the director over it, insisting that it wasn't necessary and added nothing of substance to the scene. She ultimately relented, though she claimed that it wasn't an amicable decision on her part and that she was bitter about how it all went down.
Christy Carlson Romano
If you were a kid watching the Disney Channel in the early 2000s, you are no doubt familiar with the face and/or the voice of Christy Carlson Romano. She played Shia LeBeouf's sister Ren on "Even Stevens," and also voiced teenaged crimefighter Kim Possible in that character's animated series of the same name. She clearly has warm feelings about the latter role, as she made a cameo in the 2019 "Kim Possible" live-action TV movie, and also co-hosts a podcast with her "Kim Possible" co-star Will Friedle that discusses not only the show but the world of voice acting in general.
Unfortunately, her acting career in between those two periods didn't always go quite so smoothly for Romano. In an episode of Mayim Bialik's podcast "Breakdown," Romano shared that she appeared in a horror movie that required her to do a nude scene. She didn't name the movie, but it's likely she was referring to the 2010 film "Mirrors 2," which features a scene where Romano's character is naked in the shower. Romano insisted that nobody on the set did anything to make the experience a poor one, and that everyone was nothing but professional. Nonetheless, the whole thing left her feeling really badly about herself and it took her some time to mentally recover from it.