14 Actors Who've Said "No" To On-Screen Nudity And Sex Scenes Out Of Respect For Their Partners, Families, Religion, And More
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1.Samuel L. Jackson has appeared in over 150 movies and has avoided showing full-frontal nudity in all of them. He said if he ever had to, he'd probably ask for a "dick double."
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."
2.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."
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."
3.Penn Badgley asked You creator Sera Gamble for fewer sex scenes in Season 4 out of respect for his marriage. He explained that his "desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero” but was willing to compromise with the writers.
On a recent episode of his podcast, Podcrushed, he explained, "Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me. It's got to the point where I don't want to do that."
He also added that because of the nature of the series, he knew zero intimate scenes might not be possible. "I signed this contract. I signed up for this show. I know what I did. You can't take this aspect out of the DNA of the concept, 'So how much less can you make it?' was my question to them." And luckily, he didn't receive any pushback at all from producers. "[Sera] was really glad that I was that honest. She was sort of almost, I want to say empowered, she had a really positive response. They came back with a phenomenal reduction.”
4.Keira Knightley decided that she would no longer film nude scenes for male directors after she became a mother in 2015. She explained, "I don’t have an absolute ban, but I kind of do with men. It’s partly vanity, and also, it’s the male gaze."
She added that she understands that sex sometimes drives the story along, but she would be more comfortable if someone else, like a body double, were filming the scene. "You can use somebody else. Because I’m too vain, and the body has had two children now, and I’d just rather not stand in front of a group of men naked."
5.Neal McDonough refuses to kiss any woman other than his wife and won't film any sex scenes. He even lost a role on the soap opera Scoundrels because of it.
"It was a horrible situation for me. After that, I couldn’t get a job because everybody thought I was this religious zealot," Neal told Closer Weekly.
"I am very religious. I put God and family first, and me second. That’s what I live by. It was hard for a few years. Then [Band of Brothers producer] Graham Yost called me and said, 'Hey, I want you to be the bad guy on Justified.' I knew that was my shot back at the title."
6.Rebel Wilson specifically adds a strict "no nudity" clause in her contracts when she films comedies.
Rebel told Marie Claire UK that producers wanted full-frontal nudity while she was filming The Brothers Grimsby. "We write in the contract, specifically, 'No nudity.' They got in another girl — this larger burlesque dancer from South Africa — to be a nude double. And they got her to do all this stuff. Sacha [Baron Cohen, the movie's writer and star] would go, 'See, she looks good.' I'm like, 'I'm not doing it. I don't care what you say.'"
When asked if she'd consider appearing nude in a more serious role, she added, "You want to know that the people [behind the camera] have a certain sensibility and decency. And a lot of times in comedy, they're not those people."
7.Anna Kendrick refuses to do nude scenes at all. She actually used a body double when her character had to appear naked in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.
She told the Telegraph, "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."
8.Julia Roberts has been in films that require raunchy sex scenes, but in order for her to do the film, she insists that the scenes be toned down.
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 mom of three, I feel like that."
9.Allison Williams was the only main actor from Girls who didn't appear nude onscreen. She explained that she didn't want her future kids to see her naked onscreen and added, "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."
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.'"
10.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.
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."
11.Mahershala Ali revealed that he would've turned down a role in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button if director David Fincher hadn't agreed to rethink a sex scene between him and his costar Taraji P. Henson. As a Muslim, he explained that he wanted the scene changed because he was "just trying to hold a space of respect for [his] religion."
He added that when his agent told him he booked the part, he told her, "If there’s a sex scene, I can’t do it." Fincher made the scene less graphic, and according to Mahershala, he and Taraji simply "fall out of the frame" after kissing.
12.Jessica Alba also has a nudity clause written into her contracts because she doesn't want her family to see her naked onscreen.
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."
13.Rachel Bilson doesn't like to film nude and almost lost out on her role in The Last Kiss because she refused to get naked.
She explained to Playboy, "Movies can be sexy or sexual without showing things. It's almost a dealbreaker. 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."
14.And finally, Blake Lively explained that she finds nudity in movies distracting, which is part of the reason why she doesn't appear naked in any of her movies.
She added, "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."
