Actors And Actresses That Used Body Doubles For Nude Scenes
If someone offered you a million dollars to get naked on camera, would you do it? What if someone was already paying you a million dollars to be on camera anyway, but still asked you to show some skin? Kinda takes the motivation away, doesn't it? Thus, it might not surprise you to learn that many celebs refuse to do nudity in films, for a variety of reasons.
How, then, do directors go about bringing the (sometimes intimate) images in their heads to life? Call it moviemaking magic ... or, to be more specific, using body doubles. Body doubles have been utilized in cinematic productions for centuries, dating back to the silent film era. Their highly intriguing careers hold many Hollywood secrets, and although they aren't exclusively used to showcase their nethers, a good bit of their work revolves around stripping down so the A-lister they resemble doesn't have to. Here are a few famous actors and actresses who used body doubles for nude scenes.
Lena Headey in Game of Thrones
Unless you've been living under a rock for the last decade, you're no doubt aware of the inclination "Game of Thrones" has for nudity. HBO's smash series was unapologetically abundant in its topless scenes, and several stars, including Emilia Clarke, Natalie Dormer, and Rose Leslie, actually did bare it all during their time in Westeros.
However, Lena Headey, who plays the show's villainous Cersei Lannister, opted to use a body double for the notorious sequence in which her character must atone for her sins by walking nude throughout the streets of King's Landing. The actress who stood in for Headey, Rebecca Van Cleave, spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the process of tag-teaming the tough scene. "Lena was so good about walking beside me and guiding me into what Cersei was thinking and the movements ... We were playing tag team — 'You're it!' — and trying to make light of the fact we're all covered in everything and going through this together."
Although over 1,000 actresses auditioned to be Headey's double, the Emmy nominee reportedly had no say in who got the role. "I was like, 'Listen guys, she happens to have a beautiful body, but I don't do casting ... If somebody is brave enough to do this, I applaud it." A queen's approval, indeed.
Isla Fisher in Wedding Crashers
Although her first official acting credit came in 1993, Isla Fisher's big break came some 12 years later in the 2005 comedy blockbuster "Wedding Crashers." In the film, Fisher holds her own alongside stars Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, at times stealing the show as the obsessive nymphomaniac Gloria Cleary.
In one of the film's raunchier moments, Vaughn's Jeremy wakes up with his hands tied above his head and a naked Gloria on top of him. Although it's hard to tell the difference, the woman in the scene is not Fisher, but one of her body doubles.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Fisher admitted that not only did she have a breast double for that scene, but also a butt double and even a hand double for a particularly promiscuous under-the-table scene. As she argued, if you see a character's breast, she's no longer funny. "You see her as someone sexual rather than as someone funny. I lost that argument with the producers ... I amped up the reality of my character even more. I thought, to combat the fact that you're going to see her boobs, I have to make her even more extreme for us to still get a laugh." Mission accomplished.
Mila Kunis in Friends with Benefits
Is it possible to have consistent casual sex with someone without falling in love? That's the major question behind 2011's "Friends With Benefits," which stars Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake doing their best to get it on without long-lasting attachment. Spoiler alert: it doesn't work.
A premise like this is going to include some intimate scenes, and the rom-com didn't shy away from delivering. While Timberlake reportedly had no problem baring his rear end on camera, Kunis opted to use a double for some scenes. Although she did show a little skin throughout the flick, the scene that exposes her character's full bottom is a butt double.
When speaking to Ryan Seacrest on his radio show (via The Hollywood Reporter), Kunis jokingly explained her decision: "I showed side-boob, and I figured I can't just give away everything all at once ... I gotta let it all out in little pieces here and there."
Anna Kendrick in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
2016's "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates," which was loosely based on a real-life story, seemingly had a lot going for it on paper. Perhaps its most promising facet was its talented core ensemble of Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick, and Aubrey Plaza. However, after a particularly poor box office outing to go along with abysmal reviews, it's safe to say that this misfire needed more than a strong cast to hit paydirt.
That's not to say that the comedy didn't have at least a few laughs, however. In one particularly funny scene, Kendrick's Alice and Sugar Lyn Beard's Jeanie take ecstasy, causing them to strip naked and free a stable of horses. While Beard bared it all, Kendrick used a butt double for the scene.
When speaking with E! News, Kendrick opened up about the surreal process of picking your double. "When you choose a butt double they're like, 'Is there anything you want?' As though they were going to scour the nation for the perfect ass you described and then they showed me three pictures and were like, 'This is the only one that could be you. This is the only one that isn't seven feet tall.'" Size seemingly does in the body double industry.
Keira Knightley in The Aftermath
Keira Knightley is no stranger to nudity. For reference, the British beauty appeared topless in both "The Duchess" and "The Edge of Love" back in 2008. When speaking to Allure in 2012, Knightley explained that although she doesn't mind going nude, she does have her limits: "I'm quite rigorous about what gets exposed ... No bottom half!"
However, the Oscar-nominated star changed her personal policy after becoming a mother in 2015, opting to instead use body doubles in any future naked scenes. "That was a choice ... I get to choose the body double ... I have been comfortable earlier with more nudity than I am now. I have had a kid, I am in my thirties, I am very happy with my body. But I don't feel I need to get it out that much anymore."
When 2019's post-WWII drama "The Aftermath" called for a nude scene with co-star Alexander Skarsgård, Knightley stood firm on her decision. In fact, she quite enjoyed the process. In an interview on "Live with Kelly and Ryan," Knightley said, "They (filmmakers) were like, 'What kind of body do you want?' I go, 'Wow, I'll have that one!'... She was very nice, and they (body double and Skarsgård) apparently had a lovely time, and I got to not take my clothes off and eat cake on the other side of the room" (via Film News).
Emile Hirsch in The Girl Next Door
2004's "The Girl Next Door" was perhaps a tad ahead of its time. Starring a young Elisha Cuthbert and even younger Emile Hirsch, the risque rom-com has developed quite a cult following since its theatrical release. Cuthbert, who went on to be crowned Maxim's "Most Beautiful Woman on Television" in 2012, recalls that the film especially resonated with a certain demographic, telling Maxim, "I remember I had a lot of real porn stars tell me I was like their Julia Roberts from 'Pretty Woman.'"
Although Cuthbert was the film's true marketing draw, you could argue that Hirsch was the breakout star as crushing high schooler Matthew Kidman. It was his first major motion picture, and the then-17-year-old didn't want to hold back anything ... even his unclothed backside. However, in an interview with IGN, the "Into the Wild" actor recalled that he wasn't allowed to shoot the scene during which his character streaks the streets of his neighborhood for legal reasons. "I was 17 so they had to use a body double, but I would have gotten naked or whatever."
Kat Mixon in Eastbound & Down
Katy Mixon, who played Kenny Powers' lifelong love April Buchanon in HBO's "Eastbound & Down," has an undeniably flattering figure, and one of the most prominent bits in the show's first season is how infatuated Danny McBride's Powers is with April's breasts. It's at times difficult to determine if he actually likes April or if he simply likes her body.
At the end of the first season, Kenny finally gets a chance to reignite things with his old flame, and while getting hot and heavy in a car, April treats him to a look at the source of his fixation. Although it may seem difficult to argue that it isn't Mixon in the shot, the actress has gone on record to declare that she doesn't disrobe on camera. "I just can't do nudity ... I'll act my face off, but I can't show the boobs. Not with my daddy watching everything I do."
In the same Vanity Fair interview, Mixon admitted that she used a breast double in that "Eastbound & Down" scene. "When they [Danny McBride and Jody Hill] told me about the nude scene, I was like, 'Well boys, I guess we're going to have to go with a body double, aren't we?'"
Freida Pinto in Immortals
After 2008's Oscar-winning hit "Slumdog Millionaire," Freida Pinto's career should've caught fire. The Indian actor played Latika in the film, and although it was her first time in a movie, she knocked her performance out of the park, even earning a BAFTA nomination. However, Pinto stayed under the radar, only starring in a handful of studio productions throughout the past decade. One of these projects was 2011's mythological action thriller "Immortals."
In the film, Pinto plays Phaedra, a visionary oracle who assists Henry Cavill's Theseus in obtaining a legendary weapon to save humanity. At one point, Theseus and Phaedra become intimate, resulting in a tasteful shot of the oracle's bare buttocks. However, it isn't Pinto's derrière that the audience gets a peek at.
Speaking with SheKnows, Pinto dished about her experience on set, mentioning that the love scene was the first thing she had to shoot. Although it was understandably a nerve-wracking experience, it wasn't one she had to tackle alone. "I had a body double ... It was someone else who was going to be really nervous instead of me."
Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of Grey
Saying that the film adaptation of "Fifty Shades of Grey" has a lot of sex scenes is kind of like saying that "Avengers: Endgame" has a lot of superhero fights — it's essentially the main thing audiences wanted to see in the movie. Thus, it should be no great shock that "Fifty Shades" was going to have a lot of nudity. The film's leads, Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan were up to the task of playing Anastasia and Christian, but they weren't without some assistance in the bedroom.
Reportedly, Dornan utilized Canadian model and actor Peter James Gray to double for him in erotic sequences that didn't require him to show his face. Gray's IMDb page further confirms that he was a stand-in for Dornan in the film.
Johnson, on the other hand, showcased her own body throughout the film, with one notable exception. She reportedly has tattoos in places that would contradict the innocence of her character, so they brought in a stand-in for close-ups of Ana's rear end. In an interview with the New York Times, "Fifty Shades" cinematographer Seamus McGarvey confirmed the casting. "We did have a butt double for Dakota. I had the pleasure of casting a non-tattooed bottom — Surreal Scenario No. 2."
Kit Harington in Game of Thrones
As Jon Snow, the "bastard of Winterfell" in "Game of Thrones," Kit Harington became a household name. He used "GoT" as the primary vehicle driving his fame, building a massive fanbase and being consistently ogled for his rugged good looks. He married his co-star, Rose Leslie, in 2018, and he's still widely considered one of the most attractive men in Hollywood.
Thus, some might find it disappointing to learn that when Jon Snow showed his bare rear end in a romantic cave scene in Season 3, it wasn't Harington's cheeks on camera. In an interview with GQ, the star admitted that he had injured himself six weeks before shooting, so he had to use a butt double for the scene. "When it came down to it I had a broken ankle ... so the only time you saw my ass, it wasn't my ass."
If this news makes you unhappy, fear not: Harington did eventually show his real rear end in Season 7 when he and Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen got it on.
Mandy Moore in Chasing Liberty
Once upon a time, Mandy Moore was America's Pop Sweetheart, a late '90s musical sensation behind hits like "Candy" and "I Wanna Be with You." In the early 2000s, Moore transitioned from pop star to movie star by starring in films like "A Walk to Remember" and "How to Deal." In 2004's "Chasing Liberty," Moore played the President's daughter, Anna Foster, as she escapes her security detail to explore Europe with Matthew Goode's Ben.
In one scene, Anna, feeling free for the first time in her life, goes skinny-dipping in a river in Prague. Although Anna's butt can be seen during this sequence, Moore told Mark Steins of Entertainment Tonight (via CBS News) that it was a body double. "I'm a modest girl. No one has seen my butt besides me behind closed doors."
In the DVD's commentary, Moore further confirmed that the skinny-dipping scene was performed by a body double and not her. "I picked my own butt double. I think everyone at this point knows that ... I didn't want to show the bum, but that river was so disgusting and so unhygienic, I was afraid something was gonna swim into my body that wasn't meant to be there."
Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist
Filmmaker Lars von Trier is nothing if not a boundary pusher. It's arguable whether all of his cinematic swings connect, but that won't stop him from continuing to take huge ones. Case in point, his 2009 psychological body horror film "Antichrist" opens with a couple (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe) having passionate sex in the shower while their infant son falls out of a window to his death — and things only get darker and more twisted from there.
One important detail about the coitus mentioned above is that there's a shot that shows actual penetration — in both slow motion and close-up. While both Gainsbourg and Dafoe have shown plenty of skin in movies before — and most of the shots in "Antichrist" are of the two actors — stand-ins were used for the moment that showed unsimulated sex. According to Dafoe, one of the primary reasons was that both actors are in long-term relationships — Dafoe is married, while Gainsbourg has had the same partner since 1991 — and as he put it in an interview with Dazed Digital, "I'm not sure everybody would be cool with that!" Dafoe also explained that von Trier used porn actors as the stand-ins, remarking, "It was a good decision because, if it was me, then that's all that people would talk about."
Jessica Biel in London
Jessica Biel was determined to distance herself from the role of sweet Christian daughter Mary Camden on the TV series "7th Heaven," and her initial stretch of film roles proved that. Within just a few years of filming her final episodes of the show, Biel had already done her first on-screen nude scene for the 2009 drama "Powder Blue." The direct-to-DVD movie was neither a critical nor commercial success, and Biel had to deal with the unfortunate side effect of her nude scene from the movie being spread all over the internet.
Interestingly, Biel previously had a no nudity clause in her contracts, telling Cosmopolitan in 2005, "That's for my bedroom and my man, not for everyone else." As such, when her 2005 film "London" called for close-ups of her character's naked body, Biel insisted on a body double for those shots. She got to choose her own double, something she called "a really bizarre experience." But she changed her tune for "Powder Blue," and despite all that happened with that movie and her nude scene, she told the Daily Mail in 2011 that she wasn't opposed to doing more nudity if the right project called for it.
Lily James in Pam & Tommy
Pamela Anderson had a lot of issues with Hulu's "Pam & Tommy," a miniseries that told a fictionalized version of the theft and subsequent selling of her private sex tape with then-husband Tommy Lee. In addition to just not wanting that terrible time in her life drudged up again, she objected to the fact that the project went forward without her involvement or blessing. That being said, she doesn't hold any ill will towards actor Lily James — who portrayed Anderson in the series — acknowledging that James was just an actor doing a job and doesn't take her involvement in the series personally.
To that end, James' performance of the embattled Playboy centerfold and "Baywatch" star was highly praised by critics, even those who weren't otherwise impressed with the series as a whole. In addition to her acting work, James had a lot of help from a talented make-up team to assist in her physical transformation into Anderson — including prosthetics that mimicked the model's physique. But those prosthetics were mostly designed to look good underneath clothing, so when it came time to show Anderson naked, fitness model Marissa Hoffman stepped in as a body double.
Luke Wilson in My Super Ex-Girlfriend
The 2016 rom-com/superhero spoof "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" was the work of a lot of talented people coming together to make a largely disappointing product. Uma Thurman plays the titular G-Girl, who has an alter ego named Jennifer who is G-Girl's opposite in almost every way. Jennifer enters a relationship with a man named Matt (Luke Wilson), and he soon finds out that his new girlfriend is also a superhero. Hell hath no fury like a superpowered woman scorned, and Matt finds himself in emotional and physical danger when he ends his relationship with Jennifer.
It's a premise that had potential, but it misses the mark on almost all fronts. Among its most glaring issues is that it perpetuates stereotypes about women being emotionally unstable, and suggests that they make bad superheroes because they're prone to abusing their powers in the name of seeking revenge for their boy problems. "My Super Ex-Girlfriend" also goes for pretty much every cheap laugh possible, including a scene where Matt is stripped naked in front of a conference room full of people by a vindictive G-Girl. There is a clear difference between the physique of Matt in this moment and Wilson's so it is perhaps no surprise that the shot of the character's bare behind is a body double.
Stephanie Hsu in Joy Ride
Stephanie Hsu has been kicking around on television and in movies since the early 2010s, most notably via recurring roles in the series "Girl Code" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." But it was her acclaimed performance as Joy Wang/Jobu Tupaki in 2022's martial arts multiverse mega-hit "Everything Everywhere All at Once" that put her on the pop culture map in a big way — not to mention earning her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. That seemed to open a lot of doors for Hsu, as 2023 saw her appear in four movies and on three different television shows.
One of those movies was the comedy "Joy Ride," which faltered at the box office but was a huge hit with critics. Co-starring Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, and Sabrina Wu, the movie follows four friends who go on a wild trip together full of hilarious misadventures. The pals discover many outrageous truths about one another during the trip, including the fact that Hsu's character Kat has a tattoo between her legs — and not only is the tattoo shown on screen, but so is the very private body part that it is on. In speaking with Variety at the "Joy Ride" premiere, Hsu didn't want there to be any confusion about the matter, stating, "It's a body double. Let me be clear and let my mother know."
Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter in Fight Club
When you watch "Fight Club" for the first time, it's tough to know what's real and what's in the head of Edward Norton's character. It's pretty clear even before the big twist is revealed that he's an unreliable narrator — the fact that we aren't told his name and that the movie teases us about not knowing his name is a definite red flag in that regard. That he's suffering from terrible insomnia and seems incapable of fully differentiating between his waking life and his dreams — and that the two seem to frequently overlap with one another — doesn't help matters much.
To that point, when he seems to have a dream about his mysterious pal Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) having sex with his frenemy Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter), it's not entirely clear if it was a dream, a memory, a fantasy, or something else entirely. The fact that it is shown in slow motion doesn't help in getting to the truth of what's happening. What is known is that it's not Bonham Carter's nor Pitt's bodies in that scene, despite the fact their faces are clearly shown multiple times. Instead, the scene was filmed with body doubles of both actors, with their faces digitally added in after.
Lindsay Lohan in Machete
With Eli Roth's 2023 slasher film "Thanksgiving," three of the joke trailers from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse" double feature have now been turned into real films. The first was "Machete," which was Rodriguez's contribution to the lineup of fake movie teasers that then became a 2010 feature film, and it even got a sequel — "Machete Kills" — two years later. In Rodriguez's "Planet Terror," as well as the "Machete" franchise, the filmmaker relishes leaning into the seedier aspects of '70s exploitation films — namely, gratuitous sex and nudity.
It seems as though he got both Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan to bare all for "Machete," but neither of those scenes is what they seem. For Alba's seemingly nude shower scene, the actor filmed it wearing underwear that was then digitally removed in post-production. As for Lohan, she is indeed topless for much of her screen time in the film, but she has a long blonde wig that is strategically obscuring her breasts. In the scene where her character makes out with Machete (Danny Trejo) and bare breasts are visible, Lohan's face isn't in any of the same shots — and that's because those breasts belonged to a body double and not Lohan herself.
Kate Beckinsale in Whiteout
Kate Beckinsale spent much of the 2000s and 2010s going back and forth between being an action star and a lead in indie dramas, with occasional detours into high-concept comedies. 2009 saw her return to action after having taken a few years off from the genre, starring in the film adaptation of the 1998 comic book miniseries, "Whiteout." It was a critical and commercial disappointment that failed to match the success of her "Underworld" franchise — though Beckinsale told About.com that she did appreciate trading in skintight latex outfits for more casual shirts, jackets, and pants.
As for those more casual outfits, there comes a point during "Whiteout" where Beckinsale's character takes them off. Even though the movie takes place in Antarctica and there is a lot of bundling up involved, people do need to shower from time to time, which is where we see Deputy U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko naked. When word got out that Beckinsale's bare behind was going to be visible in the film, it was quickly discovered that it wasn't her but a body double instead — and the buzz was that Beckinsale demanded this. Strangely, Warner Bros. felt compelled to issue an official statement on the matter, clarifying that Beckinsale didn't insist on a body double but that body doubles are standard in these situations and the production just automatically hired one.
Owen Wilson in You, Me and Dupree
Another Wilson brother, another naked butt for the sake of cringe comedy — and another instance where the naked butt in question doesn't belong to said Wilson brother. This time, it's Owen Wilson in the comedy "You, Me and Dupree." The movie follows Wilson as Dupree, a freeloading houseguest to married couple Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson) who has more than overstayed his welcome. Dupree seems adept at getting himself into situations between himself and Molly that are particularly awkward, up to and including her having to discover him sleeping naked on her couch and with his bare backside in full view.
We didn't exactly bury the lede on this one, so you already know that the backside didn't belong to Wilson. He said that he was never asked whether he'd be willing to do the scene himself, and that directors Joe and Anthony Russo just decided on their own to use a body double for the scene instead of Wilson. Unfortunately for the actor, they didn't offer a stunt double for the scene where Dupree takes a tumble off his skateboard and hurts his "little Duprees," claiming he had to do that himself.
Anne Bancroft in The Graduate
Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) wasn't only trying to seduce young Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) with that teasing glimpse of her bare leg above her stockings in "The Graduate." She was trying to seduce the entire audience — and given that the movie is still discussed, quoted, and the source of inspiration for other films all these years later, we'd say she was successful in doing so. It was a moment that was first alluded to in the now-iconic poster for "The Graduate," only in that case, the leg in question didn't belong to Bancroft at all. This time, it wasn't an unknown body double standing in for a star, but a star herself.
In 2013, nearly 50 years after the release of the legendary film, actor Linda Gray — best known for playing Sue Ellen Ewing on both the original run of "Dallas" and its 2012 revival — revealed to Anderson Cooper that it was her leg, not Bancroft's, on the poster that we all know so well. As for the movie itself, Mrs. Robinson does eventually strip down — and that isn't Bancroft, either. It seems that she was prepared to shoot her nude scenes for "The Graduate," but changed her mind when it came time to film the scene and a body double had to be brought in instead. A common legend is that a stripper served as the body double, but that's never been substantiated.
Rebel Wilson in The Brothers Grimsby
The fully scripted films that Sacha Baron Cohen has written haven't fared as well with critics or audiences as his mockumentary efforts. Nowhere is that more apparent than his 2016 comedy "The Brothers Grimsby," which is currently the second lowest-rated movie of his entire career on Rotten Tomatoes. In it, Cohen plays down on his luck Nobby, who is searching for his estranged brother Sebastian (Mark Strong) who has since become a decorated MI6 agent. Also starring in the film is Rebel Wilson as Nobby's long-suffering but lovingly devoted girlfriend, Dawn.
Cohen has never shied away from nudity in his movies — sometimes including himself in that — and "Grimsby" was no exception. In this case, there is a scene of full-frontal nudity involving Dawn, but Wilson told Marie Claire that it's not her in those shots. "They got in another girl — this larger burlesque dancer from South Africa to be a nude double," she explained to the outlet. Wilson said she made it clear before and all throughout the production of the film that she wasn't willing to be nude for the movie, but didn't rule it out for the future — she just said it would probably only be for a serious role rather than a comedy.
Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
"Up in the Air" earned both Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick their first and thus far only Academy Award nominations, competing with each other in the category of best supporting actress. The two play the main women in corporate traveler Ryan Bingham's (George Clooney) life during the events of the film — Farmiga a woman he's been hooking up with during business trips and finds himself developing deeper feelings for, and Kendrick Ryan's colleague and co-traveler who pushes him to act on those feelings for the woman.
By her own admission in an interview with the Times Union, Farmiga had done plenty of nudity before "Up in the Air" and was prepared to do so again during an intimate scene between herself and Clooney. But she says that writer and director Jason Reitman didn't feel comfortable with it due to Farmiga being pregnant at the time, and hired a body double for the naked shots in the scene instead. Feeling she had something to prove, Farmiga pushed Reitman to film a version of the scene with her doing the nudity herself, and he reluctantly obliged — though that's not the version he used for the movie. "I don't know why they didn't include it. I know I looked good," Farmiga confidently insisted.
Brooke Shields in The Blue Lagoon
Brooke Shields was only 14 years old when she filmed "The Blue Lagoon," which not only makes the movie's erotic overtones uncomfortable in and of itself but so too does the fact that her character appears naked in the film. For what it's worth, Shields herself was never fully naked on screen — any shots of her character's exposed breasts or any other instances of actual nudity were done by an adult body double.
But it still doesn't change the fact that the teenaged actress did film large portions of the movie topless, with her breasts only covered by her hair which had been taped to her body to keep it in place. Not to mention that the movie makes it clear that these are supposed to be underaged characters, and they are depicted as being intimate and having sex — and in a manner meant to be provocative and titillating. Of course, Shields had already been naked on screen in a movie she made when she was even younger, 1978's "Pretty Baby," filmed when the actress was only 11. She borrowed the title of that film for her 2023 Hulu docu-miniseries "Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields," about her career and how it began with her being sexualized at such a young age.
Kevin Costner in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Kevin Costner showed his bare butt so often in movies during his '80s and '90s heyday that the trend has shown up on lists about actors who do the same thing in every movie. Among the films where one of Costner's characters displays a full moon for the camera are "Bull Durham," "Dances with Wolves," "The Bodyguard," "Waterworld," "The Postman," and "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." There's just one problem — he didn't actually do it in that last one.
In the movie's DVD commentary, Costner addresses the fact that he asked for a butt double to film the skinny dipping scene for "Robin Hood." He claims the reason was that the water was extremely cold, and he was afraid of getting hypothermia. It's worth noting that some outlets have claimed that a body double was used for Costner in "Robin Hood" to cut costs, but they don't explain exactly how or why bringing in a stunt butt would be any cheaper than having Costner do it himself — nor do any of those outlets link to any official source of said information.
Liam Neeson in A Million Ways to Die in the West
Actors often use stunt people to do the dangerous or physically demanding work they either can't do or don't want to do — or in some cases, aren't allowed to do for insurance purposes. And since there's already someone on set who looks like the actor and is already wearing the actor's clothes, it just makes sense to sometimes have stunt people do things like stand in for wide shots or other such non-stunt work. If you're Liam Neeson's longtime stunt double Mark Vanselow, you might also be asked to show your butt in a movie because your boss doesn't want to.
In Seth MacFarlane's western spoof "A Million Ways to Die in the West," Neeson played a character named Clinch Leatherwood who is knocked out by his wife, Anna (Charlize Theron). To amp up the comedy of the moment, Clinch's pants are down as he falls to the ground. To add insult to injury, Anna then places a flower between Clinch's bare buttcheeks. It's hard to imagine why Neeson wouldn't have wanted to do all that, isn't it? Sure enough, he asked Vanselow to do the scene instead, up to and including having his rear end used as a makeshift flowerbed.
Anne Archer in Body of Evidence
Madonna's acting career has been an interesting one, and she's tried just about every genre there is. This will come as a shock to nobody given her history of trying to destigmatize sex and nudity, but she's also done a couple of erotic thrillers — including 1993's "Body of Evidence." She has multiple sex scenes in the film, which are shot in such a way that there's no mistaking that it is indeed Madonna's naked body on display. Ditto for co-star Julianne Moore and her sex scene. As for Anne Archer, she was asked about it during a "Today" interview, and she very much implied that she too did her own nudity for the movie.
Archer's publicist kept mum on the subject, but one of the producers of "Body of Evidence" confirmed that a body double named Shawn Eileen Lusader had been used in place of Archer. Lusader watched Archer's interview and didn't take too kindly to Archer trying to take credit for Lusader's work. She was so upset about the whole thing that she tried to form the Body of Doubles Committee — or B.O.D. Committee for short — to fight for higher pay and increased recognition for body doubles.
Drew Barrymore in Poison Ivy
Drew Barrymore has always taken an unorthodox approach to her career. So it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that she spilled the beans about the use of a body double for her 1992 erotic thriller "Poison Ivy" for a much different reason than most. While Barrymore shows plenty of her own body during the movie, director Katt Shea did confirm that a body double stepped in when things got particularly hot and heavy during the sex scenes.
As for those close-ups of what are supposed to be Ivy's naked breasts? Those weren't Barrymore either — and she was not happy about that. In a 1992 interview with Movieline, Barrymore explained, "Those shots were only supposed to be for European distribution," implying that she would've protested otherwise. She later discovered that the U.S. version of the movie also contained those same shots of her body double's breasts. Barrymore lamented, "Well, no offense to the girl, but I have prettier boobs than she does. I'm pretty bummed that America's gonna think those are mine."
The whole cast in Nymphomaniac Vol. I & II
It would seem that the few seconds of unsimulated sex in "Antichrist" were just a trial run for what director Lars von Trier was cooking up for the future. In 2013, he released his two-part epic, "Nymphomaniac," with each of the two "volumes" premiering six months apart in 2014. Coming in at a combined 325 minutes for the director's cut of both films, "Nymphomaniac" contains multiple scenes of unsimulated sex with full penetration. What's even more shocking than a mainstream, theatrically-released movie having unsimulated sex is when that sex appears to involve A-list actors.
Shia LeBeouf, Stellan Skarsgård, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Mia Goth, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and several other famous actors all appear to engage in real sex with penetration in the two volumes of "Nymphomaniac," with faces and genitals sometimes being visible simultaneously to ensure that they're all actually the ones having the intercourse. But producer Louise Vesth had already debunked that notion before the movie's release, telling The Hollywood Reporter, "We shot the actors pretending to have sex and then had the body doubles, who really did have sex, and in post we will digital-impose the two. So above the waist it will be the star and the below the waist it will be the doubles."