In our Spring 2024 print issue your favorite movie pals bare all to share their thoughts on nudity in film. Here’s a preview of what’s inside! Preorder here and find it in your mailbox at the end of March.

by Gary M. Kramer, Staff Writer

For 25 years, Todd Verow has been writing, directing, producing and starring in films that feature extensive, extended and even explicit nudity. His body of work often showcases his own nude body as many of his features Anonymous (2004), Leave Blank (2010), Deleted Scenes (2010), Tumbledown (2013) and Required Field (2016) attest. Verow also gets his cast of actors to appear nude often in shower scenes or sex scenes. I interviewed Verow, an expert on the topic, about performing and watching nudity on screen.

What do you remember about first seeing nudity on screen? Was there a film, a scene, or an actor that was particularly impactful? 

There were all those sex comedies in the early 80s, like Porky’s. When the guy sticks his dick in the hole, and she grabs it and pulls it—something about that was really sexy. People talked about the boobs, but nobody talked about the male nudity in those films.

Do you think that actors need to do full nudity to communicate emotions or truth? 

A lot of people get self-conscious when they get naked, but for me it’s the opposite. I lose self-consciousness because I am exposed. A lot of people stiffen up or think about what they look like. It should be the opposite. I am exposing myself, and this is the character I am playing at their most vulnerable.

What makes a good nude scene? I find seeing people naked and confident is far sexier than anything deliberately erotic or explicit. If you feel comfortable in your own skin, you are sexy.

I think it’s the confidence, like you said. Julianne Moore in Short Cuts where she is bottomless. Ewan McGregor is an actor who is really confident, and not self-conscious. You can tell when someone has been coerced into doing a nude scene. You can see an underlying uncomfortableness that doesn’t fit. If the scene is about a character being exploited and degraded in some way, that works, but if it isn’t that, and you sense the actor doing this somewhat against will, that is when you have a bad nude or sex scene.

What do you like or dislike about other people's nude performances? What actors or actresses do you admire for their nude scenes? I think of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. 

Basic Instinct is interesting. The sex scenes in that film are really not very good. When there is a body double or seems like there is a body double or it is too slick looking, those turn me off. The final scene in Saltburn, where [Barry Keoghan] is dancing around naked is a great scene, and he’s fantastic in that. Sex scenes in Call Me by Your Name were not very good. They felt stilted and unnatural. If it’s trying to be too “erotic” or “sensual.” That’s a turn off. I like things that are down and dirty and real seeming.

What films or filmmakers have influenced you when it comes to depicting screen nudity? You have paid homage to Warhol and others in your own work over the years. 

What I loved about the Warhol/Morrissey films is how casual nudity and sex were. They were part of the characters and stories. They were not filtered and glossy, but more realistic. He was a huge influence on me. [Rainer Werner] Fassbinder didn’t have a lot of explicit scenes, but the way he used nudity was similar. I’m thinking of In a Year of 13 Moons when the [transgender] character is attacked in the beginning and cleans themself up. I also think of porn movies, like Wakefield Poole’s Boys in the Sand and Bijou. I don’t think porn is necessarily all about just closeups of genitals going at it. When there is more realistic sex scenes and natural nudity, there is something really special about them. 

Do you feel there is an obligation for actors to get naked on screen—that it is expected, or desired? Like Richard Gere who got naked in a series of films in the 1980s, then stopped.

I think there is a lot of pressure on actors for nudity. That’s unfortunate. It would be great to see Richard Gere do a nude scene now—why not? The key is that it is not about beautiful people being naked, it is about real people being naked. Actors often get caught up in that and think “I shouldn’t do nudity.” Actually, everyone should. It is incredibly freeing and a chance to show a different aspect of yourself. It shouldn’t be about looking good. Being naked is about exposing your true self and getting to the heart of the character.

I recall when Matthew McConnaughy’s started doing nudity in films like The Paperboy and Killer Joe, his performances were great. I long admired Gael Garcia Bernal who, when he started out, did many nude scenes. His pool scene in Bad Education. It was so intense I had an out of body experience and swear I hit the floor of the theater during the press screening.

That’s important. Being nude on film or doing a nude scene can be really powerful. If an actor is not willing to do that, they are missing out. It can rob their performance. 

Why do you think we like seeing nudity on screen?

I think because it reveals so much about the character—how they are naked, how they are vulnerable or powerful. It’s really a way of getting to the core of a character right there. It can be titillating. Really good nude scenes are about revealing something about the character, not just about the character being nude. 

I think of Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises. People think it was “daring” he did that, but it made such an impact and was integral to the plot. 

I think that’s a key thing, too. The whole idea that someone is “daring” because they are baring all in a film. It shouldn’t be “daring,” it should be: “this is part of my performance, and this is important to this character and this scene.” It is not daring; it is what’s required. If we can stop talking about how “daring” nudity is and just accept it as being a part of the character, that’s a good thing.