I actually don’t remember Keira Knightley doing a ton of nudity in her career? I mean, I know she’s gone topless a few times, but it’s not like she’s known for taking on super-sexy roles where her body is on display. Most of her career is made up of costume-dramas, although I recently saw half (?) of The Aftermath, and I was surprised by the sex scenes and the partial nudity from Keira. Turns out, that was probably the last “let’s take the kit off” role for Keira. She’s now saying that she’s cancelling nudity!
Keira Knightley has insisted that she will no longer strip off for racy nude scenes now that she is a mother-of-two. The actress, 34, admitted that she always felt ‘completely comfortable’ stripping off for films when she was younger. But now that she is a mother-of-two, Keira revealed that motherhood has changed the way her body looks and she doesn’t want to stand nude in front of a film crew. In an interview with The Financial Times, she joked: ‘The nipples droop!’
Keira added: ‘I’m really happy with my body. It’s done an amazing thing. But I also don’t want to stand there in front of a whole film crew.’ The actress insisted that she always felt ‘completely comfortable’ stripping off for films when she was younger but nowadays sex scenes are heightened in movies. While Keira has appeared topless in films such as The Edge Of Love and The Duchess, she said that she has ‘never done a scene where I felt, ”Whoa, that went too far”.’
‘That was a choice,’ she said of her decision not to undress on camera any more. ‘I get to choose the body double. It is an interesting selection process! It kind of goes like, ”That’s a little bit like you, but better. She has a lovely body, so she can do this”… then I get final approval of what the edit is.”
She told The Times: ‘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 any more.’
She now has a no-nudity clause in her contract and is proud that she has ‘total control’ of every sex scene she appears in.
I think it’s her body, her choice, and I’m happy that she has that power on film sets, to dictate how her body is shown or not shown. I feel like… every actress should have that power? But it’s something “given” to certain actresses when they reach a certain level of fame or success. Still, that seems to be changing too, especially with Time’s Up. In many of the interviews and round-table discussions with actresses over the past two years, they’ve all said that more shoots are hiring “intimacy coaches” who are basically there to be advocates for the actors re: nudity and sex scenes. Progress is so slow.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
She spent most of A Dangerous Method partially undressed and getting spanked by Michael Fassbender and was topless for a good portion of Domino, so she has done quite a bit of nudity over the years. All actresses should have the right to say no.
Yup. Was just going to mention that film. She’s nude the majority of the time in it.
The scene in The Aftermath was a body double.
Her body, her choice. But I wish female actors didn’t have to feel so ashamed of their drooping breasts or a little post-baby pooch that they feel the need to hire a body double who looks like they do, “only better.”
Seriously, if that’s the reason? Then I’d rather see more naked male and female bodies that aren’t perfect lol.
The exploitative objectification of women is a different story and one I get, but nudity and sex itself I don’t have a problem with as long as both actors are given safe direction and firm control and it’s even handed. And, uh, the implications here aren’t exactly great – she’s gotten to a point of negotiation so she doesn’t have to do it, so she gets to choose a woman whose literal only role is to be a body?
I remember years ago for Domino she gave an interview where she said she was OK with topless nudity but wanted (or was required to have?) a body double for her butt so they got in a lineup of body double women to stand in front of her to choose who she wanted as her backside double and that she thought it was hilarious going down the line of women saying “too wide/muscly/round/masculine”etc until she chose the one she liked the best. I’ve always side eyed her a bit after that interview, but, in fairness, it was over a decade ago and she was probably caught up in being the Hollywood It Girl of that moment so she probably sees things differently now.
Good for her, but now it seems like the body double women are getting exploited. They’re talked about as if they aren’t even human — just parts.
She should draw whatever lines she wants with her own body and not have to explain herself.
This discussion just makes me creeped out that someone felt it was critical to the film that a butt or breasts be shown, and went so far as to cast an anonymous person/people to offer up those body parts. I would be much more interested in hearing from the body doubles, about how strange it must feel to see a movie trailer and say to friends, “Hey, check out this film, I’m in it for two seconds, I literally play the ass.” Or, like with a show I saw recently, “my micro-penis is featured in that episode!” Not exactly a dream most kids have about what job they want when they grow up.
Most of these female actors, like Keira, are doing the best they can within a sexist and abusive system.