The concluding part, after a terrific response to earlier articles! In this article I will talk about Sex & Nudity in Cinema from an Actors' Perspective. While I have included excerpts from the interviews of famous Hollywood actors about their take on nudity; I will start the article with my personal experience, when I shot my first nude scene!
It was for a producer friend of mine, she was shooting her second production with an Italian director and the year, if my failing memory serves me right was 2007! I was a recent graduate from a film school. So when the Italian director, Rosa, told me about the nude scene, I froze; it gave me goosebumps, but one look at the British actress, Angela, and I said to hell with it, she is adorable and gorgeous, let me give it a shot!
To make me comfortable, Rosa, told me, it will be a closed set. I was relieved.
The D-day arrived and the closed set had 12 people on it, including Rosa! Angela was already 'ready' with her clothes off, in the bath-tub. "Take off your clothes", Rosa instructed. And believe me, I was sweating. I just couldn't unbutton, in spite of having rehearsed the scene for two days with Angela, in front of Rosa!
Rosa was accommodating and took other shots; after pack-up she told me, to walk in the hotel room nude. She told me it was a great exercise to break-free of inhibitions! I tried it, initially, it seemed odd - but after two hours it was normal.
After two days, when we shot the scene, I was mostly fine and within a year I had come to terms with filming nude scenes.
I will say from my personal experience, it's all in the mind, you just have to condition yourself as an actor! Here are excerpts from the interviews of actors and actresses about the reality of shooting nude scenes. Most actors feel, filming sex scenes is no turn-on with cameras, crew members, director looking at your 'performance' with another actor turned scene-partner, judging every caress
and whimper!
Let's start with Nicole Kidman. In an interview to Interview Magazine, she talks about the fine line between acting and taking on a vulnerable character, and actually getting hurt, ‘Actors have to protect each other in a way,’ she tells director Lee Daniels in response to his comment that John Cusak threw her around ‘like a mop’ when filming The Paperboy.
“I personally am very excited when we shoot sex scenes,” said Sarah Treem, a creator of the Showtime series “The Affair.” “Because I think they can be very, very real”. When they work, she added, “everybody actually enjoys them.”
“We did actually save the explicit sex to the final week” of shooting, said Seamus McGarvey, the cinematographer of “Fifty Shades of Grey”.
On “Fatal Attraction,” Michael Douglas and Glenn Close were loosened up with Champagne and margaritas, said Adrian Lyne, director of sexually charged classics; “Indecent Proposal” and “Unfaithful”, as well. He continues, "you try and create a situation where there are possibilities. I’ve always thought that sort of grabbed sex is more fun than that statuesque sort of bedroom stuff. So in “Fatal Attraction,” the scene where they [have sex] over the sink, I knew it had humorous possibilities because there was plates and cups in the sink. If you don’t get some humor in, the audience will laugh at you, because they’re nervous watching it.
On “Fatal Attraction,” Michael Douglas and Glenn Close were loosened up with Champagne and margaritas, said Adrian Lyne, director of sexually charged classics; “Indecent Proposal” and “Unfaithful”, as well. He continues, "you try and create a situation where there are possibilities. I’ve always thought that sort of grabbed sex is more fun than that statuesque sort of bedroom stuff. So in “Fatal Attraction,” the scene where they [have sex] over the sink, I knew it had humorous possibilities because there was plates and cups in the sink. If you don’t get some humor in, the audience will laugh at you, because they’re nervous watching it.
Michael Douglas says 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."
Lena Dunham used a nude patch but after the first season of Girls, she stopped wearing it. "There’s not one guy who works on that show who hasn’t seen the inside of my vagina. The nude patch gets sweaty and always falls off."
Anne Hathaway had a revoltingly embarrassing feeling taking her clothes off in front of strangers. She says, she thought, "OK, I'm going to be in control. I'm going to do everything properly, disrobe at the last minute, and in between shots get the clothes back on." But then she found that every time she put her robe back on, it rubbed all the body make-up off, and that added 20 minutes to filming. "As with all things in life, the second you stop making it about you and you make it about everyone else, it just got, dare I say, fun", she chuckles.
Henry Cavill has an interesting 'confession', “It's only happened to me once,” he said of getting an erection on set. “A girl had to be on top of me, she had spectacular breasts and I hadn't rearranged my stuff into a harmless position. She's basically rubbing herself all over me and, um, it got a bit hard.” Cavill apologized afterwards (“It’s not great when you’re in a professional acting environment and somebody gets a b***r, is it?”) and insists there is nothing “sexy” about raunchy scenes: “All you’re doing is smacking your nuts against someone and nothing is going in.”
Michael Fassbender admits candidly that sex scenes can be quite awkward. As a guy, the first thing you want to do is make sure you're not taking advantage. You don't want the girl to feel like you're getting a free feel, "I try to make a fool of myself in one way or another to lighten the mood and then just go for it, because you don't want to be doing take after take."
Angelina Jolie who has both acted & directed nude scenes says, "You kind of suddenly feel this strange thing of asking people to participate in anything like that because they’re not a real couple. You find out how strange this is to ask anybody to get naked together and put a camera on them."
Hugh Grant actually enjoys sex scenes, "though you’re not really supposed to. The classic answer is, Oh, it’s not sexy at all because there are so many technicians standing around; but I’ve always found them extremely arousing."
Kate Winslet has done nude scenes in most of her films, winds up with, “You can literally be tangled in sheets and you turn to the other actor and say, 'What the f**k are we doing?' Dear Mum, at work today I had so-and-so's left nut sack pressed against my cheek", she giggles.
To wind up, if at all you are up for a nude scene; treat them as any other scene, you will be relaxed and much more convincing while, well, performing!
