Stars Who Were Pressured to Get Naked for Their Roles on Film TV
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In the years since the brave leaders of the #MeToo movement first began shedding a light on sexual abuse in Hollywood, many stars have spoken up about the pressures they faced to be nude on camera, shoot sex scenes and more.
While some stars were courageous enough to speak out before it became more popular to do so, others have elevated the voices in the #MeToo Movement by echoing their experiences. All of these stars have played a role in stamping out manipulative, coercive behavior in the workplace and in encouraging others to speak up about things they were subjected to on set — or better yet, speak up before anything happens!
When Emilia Clarke spoke out about being pressured to get naked on the Game of Thrones set, we just felt, well, icky— but her story was also all too familiar. Jennifer Lopez, Natalie Portman, and many other actors have also been pressured to take their clothes off for a role. Let’s be clear: There’s nothing wrong with an actor or actress willingly, happily, deciding to strip down to better get into character — in fact, we celebrate it. But the sad reality is that many actors have found themselves shedding their clothes for a scene because they worried about the implications of saying “no,” or were intimidated into doing as they were told.
The #MeToo movement has helped unearth many of the ways that powerful figures in Hollywood take advantage of their status and influence. These stories of actors being pressured into nudity show yet another way the system is broken and needs more protection for those just starting out in the industry.
Read on for these stars’ accounts of being pressured to take their clothes off, on and off-screen.
A version of this article was originally published in December 2019.
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Rebel Wilson
Rebel Wilson’s 2016 claims about being pressured to film nude scenes in Sacha Baren Cohen’s The Brother Grimsby stirred up a years-long rift between the two.
“They wanted full-frontal nudity,” Wilson told Marie Claire UK in 2016. “We write in the contract, specifically, ‘No nudity.'”
So, the production hired a nude double. But the pressure didn’t stop there: “They got in another girl — this larger burlesque dancer from South Africa — to be a nude double,” Wilson told the magazine. “And they got her to do all this stuff…Sacha would go, ‘See, she looks good.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not doing it. I don’t care what you say.'”
In 2024, Wilson alleged that Baron Cohen was attempting to block the release of her memoir. Baron Cohen, via his rep, denied Wilson’s claims about what happened on set of the film.
Sophia Bush
Sophia Bush and some of her One Tree Hill castmates spoke out in a 2017 open letter to accuse showrunner Michael Schwan of sexual harrassment on set. “Many of us were, to varying degrees, manipulated psychologically and emotionally,” said the 18 women who co-signed the letter.
Bush elaborated on the pressures in a 2020 podcast, saying: “I remember my boss kept writing scenes for me to be in my underwear. And I was like, ‘I’m not doing this, this is inappropriate.’ Like, ‘I don’t think this is what we should be teaching 16-year-old girls to be doing and to be seeking validation this way.'”
Debra Messing
During The Hollywood Reporter’s 2018 Television Comedy Actress Roundtable, Debra Messing revealed that she was pressured into doing a nude scene on the set of A Walk In The Clouds. “I was tricked into signing a nudity waiver by the producers,” Messing alleged, claiming that she was told the movie was PG-13 so no nudity could be shown.
“And then the day I showed up, they said, ‘OK, this is your lingerie for the first part and this is your nude scene,'” she detailed, explaining that when she confronted the producers she was told the movie was not PG-13 internationally.
Léa Seydoux
In a 2013 interview with The Daily Beast, Léa Seydoux called filming her hit movie Blue is the Warmest Color “horrible” and claimed she would “never” work with director Abdellatif Kechiche again due to the pressure she faced to film sex scenes.
“The director has all the power. When you’re an actor on a film in France and you sign the contract, you have to give yourself, and in a way you’re trapped,” she explained.
Her co-star, Adèle Exarchopoulos, agreed. She said: “We wanted to give everything we have, but sometimes there was a kind of manipulation, which was hard to handle.”
Salma Hayek
In a 2017 op-ed in The New York Times, Salma Hayek opened up about suffering a “nervous breakdown” while attempting to shoot a sex scene with another woman that producer Harvey Weinstein bullied her into.
“It was clear to me he would never let me finish this movie without him having his fantasy one way or another. There was no room for negotiation,” she wrote. “It was not because I would be naked with another woman. It was because I would be naked with her for Harvey Weinstein.”
Amanda Seyfried
The Dropout star Amanda Seyfried recently talked to Net-a-Porter about growing up as an actor before the #MeToo movement. “Being 19, walking around without my underwear on – like, are you kidding me? How did I let that happen?” She told the magazine sarcastically. “Oh, I know why: I was 19 and I didn’t want to upset anybody, and I wanted to keep my job. That’s why.”
Renée Zellweger
In her April 2022 profile with Harper’s Bazaar, Renée Zellweger opened up about the times early on in her career she felt pressured to take off her clothes in front of the camera.
“There have been times I have been in, you know, on set,” she shared with the outlet, adding, “Where a producer’s ready for me to go ahead and take my clothes off. ‘Here, drink this wine, ’cause then you’ll do it.’ And, you know, I’m not gonna take that wine, but I would like a phone. ’Cause I have a phone call I need to make right now.”
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez may have bared it all for Hustlers, but make no mistake: J.Lo only takes her clothes off on her terms.
In a 2018 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she said this of her experiences in Hollywood: “I haven’t been abused in the way some women have. But have I been told by a director to take off my shirt and show my boobs? Yes, I have. But did I do it? No, I did not.”
“When I did speak up, I was terrified,” the star continued. “I remember my heart beating out of my chest, thinking, ‘What did I do? This man is hiring me!’ It was one of my first movies. But in my mind I knew the behavior wasn’t right. It could have gone either way for me. But I think ultimately the Bronx in me was like, ‘Nah, we’re not having it.'”
Mary-Louise Parker
In 2009, Mary Louise Parker spoke to More Magazine about a scene in Weeds in which she’s sitting in a bathtub. “I didn’t think I needed to be naked, and I fought with the director about it, and now I’m bitter,” Parker told the outlet. “I knew it was going to be on the Internet: ‘Mary Louise shows off her big nipples.’ I wish I hadn’t done that. I was goaded into it.”
Emilia Clarke
On an episode of podcast Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, Emilia Clarke recounted the pressure to take her clothes off on early seasons of Game of Thrones. “I’m a lot more savvy [now] with what I’m comfortable with, and what I am okay with doing,” she told host Shepard.
“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, ‘F–k you.'”
Megan Fox
Megan Fox didn’t even have to get on set to realize that a project involving a lot of nudity was going to be a no-go: “I was offered a project that’s coming out on HBO that centers around the life of a prostitute and it has very graphic sex scenes — things you would see in a pornographic film,” Fox told The Sun in 2016.
Per Fox’s assessment, no woman should be asked to do what the script entailed: “Those are things that are degrading to the woman who’s playing the character.”
Natalie Portman
There’s been some confusion about which film exactly Natalie Portman was referring to with this quote — but in 2003, she said this to Parade Magazine: “I’m really sorry I didn’t listen to my intuition. From now on, I’m going to trust my gut more. Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is say no.”
This was initially reported as referring to Portman’s nude scene in the short film Hotel Chevalier — but a later correction suggests she was talking about a nue torture scene in Goya’s Ghosts.
Sharon Stone
Everyone and their mother knows the scene in Basic Instinct, where Sharon Stone opens and closes her legs. But apparently, the backstory is a lot more sinister than we realized. “When we did it, it was going to be an innuendo and the director said, ‘We’re seeing the white of your underwear, I need you to take them off,’ Stone said on The Talk in 2014.
“And I’m like, ‘I don’t want you to see anything and he’s like, ‘No, no you’re not going to’ … So when I saw it in the theater, with a bunch of other people, I was like [in shock]. When the film ended I went in the booth and I slapped [the director] and I said, ‘You could have shown me this to me by myself.'”
Kate Winslet
At a 2012 showing of Titanic (in 3-D, much to Kate Winslet’s distress), the film’s star talked to The Sun about the famous moments she stripped down for: that, ahem, steamy scene in the car with Leonardo DiCaprio, and of course, the scene where he sketches her nude.
“I’m not going to look. I’ll be in the bar by that point,” Winslet told The Sun. “I wish I hadn’t shown so much flesh but I was young and I knew I had things to prove.”
Ben Stiller
In 2004, superstar Ben Stiller stripped down below the waist for a scene in Along Came Polly — and later explained just how contentious that had been. “Director John Hamburg said he’d cut the scene if it didn’t get a laugh,” Stiller said. Obviously, that didn’t happen.
“Later, I discovered I could have had a bottom double,” the actor added. “But no one had bothered to tell me.”
Jessica Brown Findlay
In 2013, Downton Abbey’s Jessica Brown Findlay talked to Radio Times about a scene from the movie Albatross, in which Findlay flashes her breasts at a liquor store.
“To be honest, Albatross was naiveté and not knowing that I could say ‘no’. I had no idea what was going to happen and thought I was going to be shot from behind. It’s not something I would do again,” she said.
Rachel Bilson
Rachel Bilson has a sex scene with Zach Braff in The Last Kiss that entails some nudity — and according to the O.C. star’s 2008 Playboy interview, she wasn’t too thrilled with it.
“Movies can be sexy or sexual without showing things,” Bilson told the outlet. “It’s almost a deal breaker. [The Last Kiss] 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.”
Helen Mirren
In 2006, Mirren was quoted as telling CBS News: “I might seem uninhibited but believe me, I’m not. I’ve always had a problem doing nudity. In fact, I hated it.” This may have come as a surprise at the time, as Mirren had appeared nude in several films like Caligula, Calendar Girls, and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone.
“It has never been a comfortable thing. I’ve never enjoyed it. It’s always mortifying,” Mirren said of stripping down for those films. “I did those scenes because I didn’t want to be uptight. Now I have got stuck in a way with a reputation for doing nude scenes.”
Ruth Wilson
The Affair’s Ruth Wilson is hardly shy about taking her clothes off — but on her high-nudity show, she still notices a disparity in how men and women are treated. “I have a big concern about how women are treated in the industry generally, and how they have to provide the titillation because penises can’t be seen on screen but breasts can. It’s assumed that women will get their breasts out, and have to get their breasts out, and I balk at that. It’s unnecessary and it’s unfair,” she told The Edit in 2015.
“I [keep] insisting, ‘Why have I always got to do the orgasm face? There should be a male orgasm face. Why is it always the woman who’s orgasming?”
Halle Berry
Halle Berry appeared topless in 2001’s Swordfish, and gave this interview to Cinema.com shortly thereafter: “I don’t think nudity is ever necessary. I think you can make every single movie and never show anything and it’s fine. I think it’s a choice you make.”
So, why did she do it? “It was a bold choice on my part,” Berry said. “But it was written in the script and when I was offered the part, I was told, ‘That’s who this girl is and it’s not negotiable to be taken out.'”
Taylor Lautner
Taylor Lautner shot to fame for his role in the Twilight series — but his status as a heartthrob didn’t always make the actor happy. In 2009, he told Aceshowbiz.com that he worried all those shirtless shots were taking away from his performance.
“I worked hard to get in shape for this role,” Lautner admitted. “My motivation was the movie and the fans, but I don’t want to become known as just a body. If I had to choose, I would never take my shirt off again in a movie, but I guess that’s not very realistic. I certainly won’t be asking to do it, though.”
Kate Beckinsale
One person commented under Kate Beckinsale’s daring dress photoshoot about how she opened up about being pressured for a sec scene. They rudely commented “Isn’t it the same woman who said in an interview “a director forced her to wear a inappropriate sexy dress for a red but she didn’t want to do it” . But who forced you now kate??? Beside you’re my favourite tbh.”
Beckinsale clapped back, saying, “[They] forced me to do a sex scene I didn’t agree to. No one forced me here . The difference is choice, and agency over one’s body. Which was and remains the point.”
