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11 Actors Who’ve Opened Up About What It’s Like Filming Sex Scenes, And 10 Actors Who’ve Said “No” To Nudity Altogether
Samuel L. Jackson said if he ever had to do full frontal nudity, he'd probably hire a body double because he doesn't know if his anatomy is big enough to "fill [his] aura."

11 Actors Who’ve Opened Up About What It’s Like Filming Sex Scenes, And 10 Actors Who’ve Said “No” To Nudity Altogether

1. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Shailene Woodley’s first ever sex scene was opposite Miles Teller for the movie The Spectacular Now. She revealed that scene was actually her favorite one from the movie because of how “safe” and “comfortable” she felt while filming it.

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When Howard Stern asked if Samuel felt like his dick wasn’t big enough, Samuel replied, “I don’t know if it’s formidable enough. My aura’s so big, I don’t know if my dick is big enough to fill my aura.”

Jay Maidment / Columbia Pictures / Everett Collection

3. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Emilia Clarke has been nude onscreen for Game of Thrones’ sex scenes and revealed that Jason Momoa played a huge part in making her comfortable on set. On the Armchair Expert podcast she said, “[Jason] was like, ‘Sweetie, this is how it’s meant to be; this is how it’s not meant to be.’ He was so kind and considerate and cared about me as a human being.”

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She said she experienced pushback later on in her career when she decided not to fully strip down. She said, “I’ve had fights on set before where I’m like, ‘No, the sheet stays up,’ and they’re like, ‘You don’t wanna disappoint your Game of Thrones fans.’ And I’m like, ‘Fuck you.'”

HBO

4. REFUSES TO FILM NUDE: Mandy Moore has never filmed nude, and prefers not to. She even used a body double in Chasing Liberty for a scene where she had to show her butt.

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She told Entertainment Tonight, “I’m a modest girl. No one has seen my butt besides me behind closed doors.”

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5. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Talking about his sex scenes from Bridesmaids, Jon Hamm said filming those will always be awkward, but it’s the most fun when he can embrace all of that weirdness. He told Playboy, “It’s like running in the rain. There’s a certain point when you go, ‘Fuck it, I’m already wet. I’m not going to get any less wet, so I might as well just enjoy how this feels.'”

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He continued, “I mean, sure, there’s awkwardness about being in a weird flesh-colored thong, bouncing on top of an actress. I am not a small human being. I weigh at least 200 pounds and I’m six-foot-two. And [Kristen] Wiig is a twig; she’s a skinny little thing. It’s weird and uncomfortable at first, but then all the awkwardness melts away and you think, All right, we’re doing this, so let’s have fun with it. You know what I mean? You’re in that moment and it’s happening and it’s not going to get any better, so you might as well enjoy it.”

Universal

6. REFUSES TO FILM NUDE: Anna Kendrick actually used a body double when her character had to appear naked in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.

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She told The Telegraph that she actually refuses to do nude scenes at all. She said, “I will not do that… I am not criticizing people who do [nude scenes], but I plan to keep doing what I am doing and hope it keeps going good.”

20th Century Fox

7. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Nicole Kidman’s nude scenes in Big Little Lies made her feel “very exposed and vulnerable and deeply humiliated at times.” Her character Celeste was in an abusive marriage, and after a particularly difficult scene, Nicole was, “lying on the floor and I just wouldn’t get up in-between takes. I was just lying there, sort of broken and crying, and I remember at one point [director] Jean-Marc coming over and just sort of placing a towel over me because I was just lying there in half-torn underwear and just basically on the ground with nothing on and I was just, like [gasps]. But at times I would have flashes of images of women that have gone through this and I’m like, ‘This is authentic, this is the truth and this is what I have to do, and it would just come through like that.’

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She explained that she felt connected to her character Celeste, but to do the role justice she had to put her own insecurities on the back burner: “When I would go home, I would feel ashamed, and that’s the same emotions and the same feelings that Celeste was having, so we were very much parallel in the feelings, but I was willing to do that for the role because that’s what I felt was important for the role. When I talk about not censoring myself through my own inhibitions and not then affecting a story or a character because of my own inhibitions, I’m here to tell the story and to be true to the art, not to bring my own problems in terms of what I feel comfortable with, not comfortable with. I’ve got to go work that stuff out so that I can come as a pure vessel to the work.”

HBO

8. REFUSES TO FILM NUDE: Julia Roberts has been in films that require raunchy sex scenes but she has insisted that the scenes be toned down.

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When asked if she’d do a nude scene she said, “You know it’s not really what I do, so if you are going [to] ask me to do it, you have to expect it to be toned down. You know, as a mum of three, I feel like that.”

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9. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Viola Davis told Tom Hanks that she has no issue with filming nude sex scenes, as long as production allows them to be as realistic as possible: “I’m not a woman who’s a size two. If I’m in a sex scene, I want to play the sex scene. I want to say, ‘This is why I’m attracted to you; it’s gotten to this point; this is what my body looks like.'”

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She also saw these scenes as an opportunity for better representation of Black women on TV. She explained, “I saw it as an opportunity way bigger than doing good work — I saw it as an opportunity for a dark-skinned actress of 50 to be in a role that’s sexualized, not sexy. There’s a difference between sexualized and sexy.”

ABC

10. REFUSES TO FILM NUDE: Sarah Jessica Parker does not appear in sex scenes where she has to be naked, and is the only main Sex and the City actor that hasn’t filmed nude. She even has a “no nudity” clause in her contracts.

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She told The Hollywood Reporter, “I don’t have any judgment about anyone who chooses to do it. I think it’s fantastic that people feel comfortable doing it. It’s not some kind of principled position or religious or ideological on my part.”

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11. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Dave Franco’s first real movie sex scene was in Neighbors, and he remembered it being “nerve-wracking,” especially because he’d only met just his scene partner, Halston Sage, a day before.

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He told Chelsea Handler, “It was my first real sex scene where I show my butt. You’re not going to have that reaction when you see it on the big screen. It was nerve-wracking. I was pretty nervous. I met the girl the day before, and she was beautiful and very sweet. But it’s awkward. You meet each other and then you’re grinding. You don’t even know her name…barely.”

Universal

12. REFUSES TO FILM NUDE: Megan Fox has turned down roles because they have graphic sex scenes that she wouldn’t want her family to see. She said, “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.”

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She turned down an HBO role where she was supposed to play a sex worker, and said, “Those are things that are degrading to the woman who’s playing the character.”

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13. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Ashton Kutcher explained that because those scenes will never not be awkward, he prefers to “act like nothing happened” after filming.

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He said, “I just start by apologizing…I think somebody told me, and I’m not sure who the actor was. I think it was Sir Laurence Olivier who said it, but…I think he said something to the effect of, ‘I apologize if I get aroused and I apologize if I do not get aroused.’ But there is sort of always this awkward state of, is this OK, is that OK? And then in between, it’s like, just, let’s act like nothing happened. And then you see how good of an actor you really are.”

Paramount

14. REFUSES TO FILM NUDE: Rachel Bilson almost lost out on her role in The Last Kiss because she didn’t want to film naked for it.

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She explained to Playboy, “Movies can be sexy or sexual without showing things. It’s almost a deal breaker. The movie was rated R, and they like to put in nudity wherever they can, but I’m pretty strong-willed and believe it can be avoided.”

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15. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: While filming The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Robert Pattinson said he didn’t want to embarrass himself during his sex scenes with Kristen Stewart, who he was dating at the time.

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He told Parade, “I think the more comfortable you are with each other, the harder it gets to do any kind of really intense relationship scene. You’re kind of thinking, ‘I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of this person,’ ‘I know what she’s thinking now,’ so it becomes ridiculous after a while. Watching other people have sex is never going to be that spectacular anyway. It’s a strange thing when there’s so much hype about it. You are like, ‘God, I hope this lives up to it.’ The toughest part was avoiding an R-rating. It’s funny when people talk about the sex scenes in the book because there are no sex scenes in the book. Go back and read. They always fade to black.”

Summit

16. REFUSES TO FILM NUDE: Jessica Alba also has a nudity clause written into her contracts because she doesn’t want her family to see her naked onscreen.

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She told Glamour, “I don’t want my grandparents to see my boobs. That’s it. It would be weird at Christmas. And, I mean, really, if you look at the movies I have done, getting naked would never ‘elevate’ the picture.”

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17. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Jason Statham has said that filming sex scenes is actually “quite difficult” because of all the commotion going on behind the camera.

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He said, “Trying to do an aggressive sex scene is quite difficult. Especially in a public place with a crowd of screaming extras with their little camera phones going click-click, taking pictures of your pasty white ass. I’ve had my fair share of bedroom antics in films, but they were a little more private.”

Lionsgate

He has also talked about wanting to make sure his female costars feel as comfortable as possible during these scenes. He said, “Kissing scenes are not just another day on set. First off, you have to get ready. You don’t want to go and have a big cheese and onion sandwich before you do some love scene. Then you try and make the lady feel as comfortable as you can. After that, you just get on with it.”

18. REFUSES TO FILM NUDE: Blake Lively finds nudity in movies distracting, which is part of the reason why she doesn’t appear naked in any of her movies.

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She told the Daily Mail, “When I see nudity in movies, I am always distracted by it. I know that if I am watching a scene and someone has their boobs out, then that’s all I’m looking at — I can’t help it. I just don’t think that will ever be right for me.”

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19. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Michael Douglas has said that he feels sex scenes are actually the most judged scenes out there because everyone has opinions on “how it should be done.”

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He told Vulture, “Once you get that first kiss in, you are comfortable. Matt [Damon] and I didn’t rehearse the love scenes. We said, ‘Well — we’ve read the script, haven’t we?’ The hardest thing about sex scenes is that everybody is a judge. I don’t know the last time you murdered somebody or blew anyone’s brains out, but everyone has had sex and probably this morning, which means everyone has an opinion on how it should be done.”

HBO

20. REFUSES TO FILM NUDE: Allison Williams was the only main actor from Girls who didn’t appear nude onscreen. She even refused to sign a nudity waiver when she was asked to by HBO. She recalled, “I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to sign it.’ And my agents were like, ‘What?’ ‘Just tell them I’m not going to sign it.’ And they were so stunned and so up against it time-wise, that I think they were just like, ‘All right. She’ll change her mind. She’ll get swept up in the vibe of the show. Whatever. Don’t make her sign it.'”

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She told ABC she didn’t want her future kids to see her naked onscreen. She explained, “I just wanted to give Marnie almost all of myself. But there were things that felt like they should be mine and felt like they should always be mine.”

HBO

21. OPENED UP ABOUT SEX SCENES: Finally. Justin Timberlake said that filming sex scenes is actually not all it’s cracked up to be. He’s even called them “exhausting.”

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He said, “[Filming sex scenes] is actually kind of annoying, you’re there for 12 hours, it’s exhausting. All those scenes revolve around the dialogue and physical humor is so tiring.”

Columbia