Ever since movies first started to hit cinema screens, nudity has been part of the industry. That isn’t entirely surprising given that movies often replicate real life, and there are plenty of times in our lives when people end up without their clothes on for various reasons. Of course, things have changed somewhat in the modern era, with intimacy coordinators and studio policies in place to ensure that actors are kept safe and maintain their dignity.

That’s not to say, though, that every actor enjoys doing nude scenes or even agrees to do them. Plenty of actors have refused to appear naked on screen and many releases end up using body doubles or special effects to fool the audience. However, there are some actors who genuinely enjoy doing nude scenes, whether it’s for a blockbuster movie or a high-profile television series. These actors were all more than willing to take off their clothes — and actually had fun getting naked for the camera.

Katherine Waterston

Shasta Fay Hepworth staring menacinglyWarner Bros. Pictures
Katherine Waterston has appeared in dozens of films in her career, including the likes of “Logan Lucky,” “Alien: Covenant,” and “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” However, she first rose to fame with a major role in the 2014 Paul Thomas Anderson film “Inherent Vice,” alongside the likes of Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, and Josh Brolin. Waterston played Shasta Fay Hepworth, who has a nude sex scene with her ex-boyfriend, portrayed by Phoenix.

Waterston admitted that she found the film’s nude scenes challenging but also that they were somewhat liberating and enjoyable. It helped that she believed in the connection between Phoenix’s character and Shasha, as well as the fact that her co-star was so comforting and a team player. “You think, ‘Oh gosh, my friend just took off all his clothes, now I’m taking off all my clothes,’ and before you know it, you’re just swimming in the water and you’re not thinking about the fact,” she told Huffington Post. “There’s maybe a moment where you gulp, but then, for me, the scene was so much fun to play that I didn’t really think about it too much.”

Halle Berry

Ginger looking scaredWarner Bros. Pictures
Joel Silver, the producer behind a string of box office successes such as the “Lethal Weapon” films and “The Matrix,” often combined high-octane action with a generous amount of female nudity in many of his popular films. While that has made him a controversial figure, he continued the tradition with the 2001 movie “Swordfish.” In fact, it was Silver who persuaded Halle Berry to come aboard the film and perform a topless scene, making it one of her first nude scenes in a Hollywood movie.

For her part, Berry doesn’t seem to have been fazed by the experience in any way. Although she was nervous at first, this was something that the actor had shown an interest in throughout her career but never quite felt confident enough to do. “So much of my life I was afraid to [do a nude scene],” she told Entertainment Weekly. “With the success of my Dorothy Dandridge project and the critical acclaim that brought me, I finally felt that I didn’t have to prove myself anymore.”

Emilia Clarke

Daenerys with DrogonHBO

Emilia Clarke hasn’t always had the best experiences doing nude scenes. In early “Game of Thrones” episodes, her character had a number of onscreen sexual encounters at a time when she was still relatively new as an actor. She has previously spoken about how she found them frightening to do because she was so inexperienced.

By the time the sixth season of the show came around, both Clarke and her character, Daenerys Targaryen, were in much stronger, dominant positions. Yet the actor chose not to use a body double for her dramatic, naked reveal as she emerged from the ashes of the fiery Dothraki hut in Episode 4, “Book of the Stranger.” Clarke thought it important to portray Daenerys herself in such an important moment and was pleased to have the confidence to fully commit, confirming that it was her in the scene.

“I’d like to remind people the last time I took my clothes off was Season 3,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “That was a while ago. It’s now Season 6. But this is all me, all proud, all strong. I’m just feeling genuinely happy I said ‘Yes.’ That ain’t no body double!”

Ashton Kutcher

Adam Franklin in bed with EmmaParamount Pictures
Ashton Kutcher is an actor who has appeared in everything from “That ’70s Show” and “Dude, Where’s My Car?” to “Two and a Half Men” and “No Strings Attached.” The latter of these sees the actor star opposite Natalie Portman as two friends who enter into an arrangement to begin a physical relationship without becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. As you might have guessed, the movie features some nudity as the two characters get up close and personal.

That wasn’t something that was upsetting for Kutcher. In fact, the actor revealed to the Belfast Telegraph that he found the entire experience pretty enjoyable. Taking a philosophical approach that everyone is born naked, the actor wasn’t worried about what he looked like on camera, even if the towel he was using to keep some modesty was smaller than he originally expected. “I like having it out, I don’t mind being naked — we all came into the world this way, and there’s very little you can do about it. You are who you are,” he said.

Michiel Huisman

Daario at court in armorHBO
Before appearing in “Game of Thrones” as Daenerys Targaryen’s trusted warrior Daario Naharis, Michiel Huisman wasn’t exactly well-known to audiences outside his native Netherlands. Daario has a sexual relationship with Daenerys almost immediately after meeting her in the third season, and this continued well into the sixth season until the Dragon Queen set sail for Westeros. All of those sex scenes meant there was a certain amount of nudity for Huisman, something that he relished.

Part of this was down to the fact that the actor understood that nudity and sex were part of what made “Game of Thrones” so successful. Huisman also felt it was in keeping with his character, as someone who generally only wears armor to protect him in battle rather than as clothing. Huisman explained to the New York Post (via The Washington Post) how he enjoyed his nude scenes because of the way they reversed traditional male and female roles, saying, “Here’s a woman … taking full control over her pleasure, y’know? Telling a man to take off his clothes, where it’s often the other way around. I was happy to be a victim of that.”

Jennifer Lawrence

Maddie smiling while drivingSony Pictures Releasing
Unlike many of her contemporaries, Jennifer Lawrence has never been an actor associated with nudity. Even though she is one of the most successful actors of recent times, with roles in both the “X-Men” and “The Hunger Games” film series, Lawrence has largely avoided roles that require her to strip off her clothing. She made a notable exception to this policy in 2023 when she appeared in the comedy “No Hard Feelings.”

The film features a notable scene where Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman’s character go skinny-dipping at the beach. While the pair are naked in the water, a group of teenagers steal their clothes, prompting Maddie to jump out and fight them off. The actor admitted that she had a great time filming the outlandish action sequence, saying, “it was a blast” when discussing the film with USA Today. As well as it being a lot of fun, Lawrence found another benefit from performing the scene in the workout it provided. “That was the most exercise I’ve had in a really long time,” she revealed.

Florence Pugh

Katherine Lester in black dressAltitude Film Distribution
Despite already earning an Oscar nomination and winning widespread praise for her acting roles, Florence Pugh has faced barrages of body shaming. Everything from her choice of clothing to her body shape and size has been creepily criticized online. However, the actor has not taken the abuse lying down and has fought back against those who try to put her down. She has also admitted that she now cares a lot less about what people think about her and will continue to express herself through fashion and other means.

One of the reasons that she is more confident and carefree is due to her role in the 2016 period drama “Lady Macbeth.” The role required a lot of nudity, and having to work through that changed her attitude toward her own body. “I loved the fact she was naked all the time,” Pugh told The Standard. “At that point in my life I had been made to feel s*** about what I looked like and that film was perfect, there was no room for me to feel insecure.”

Ken Jeong

Leslie Chow fights nakedWarner Bros. Pictures
Long before he became a comic and actor, Ken Jeong was working as a doctor. He finally got his break in the entertainment industry when he was cast in “Knocked Up,” going on to star in a number of comedies before he landed a role in “The Hangover” as Leslie Chow. He immediately made an impression thanks to his outlandish introduction when he jumped completely naked out of the trunk of a car and attacked Bradley Cooper’s character.

It turns out that Jeong didn’t just enjoy filming that particular scene but actually suggested it in the first place. He told NBC News that he came up with the idea as a way to make the audience laugh and give them something to remember him by. The actor said of his motivation, “I just kind of wanted to shock everybody.” Speaking to The Washington Post, Jeong also confirmed that he is always willing to get naked if it gets a laugh from viewers. “I am totally uninhibited at the risk of making myself look idiotic,” he explained.

Barry Keoghan

Oliver looking in the mirrorMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Despite his relatively young age, Barry Keoghan has already established himself as a distinguished actor. In recent years, he has appeared in movies such as “The Green Knight,” “Eternals,” and “The Banshees of Inisherin,” yet it is his role in “Saltburn” that has made him a worldwide star. The explicit and occasionally confusing film sees Keoghan portray Oliver Quick, who ends the story by dancing naked through his newly acquired manor — something that he found plenty of pleasure in doing.

“It totally felt right,” Keoghan told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s ownership. This is my place. It’s full confidence in, ‘I can do what I want in this manor. I can strip to my barest and waltz around because this is mine.’ Yeah … it was fun.” The actor admitted he had some initial trepidation over the scene but quickly found the fun in the performance after he had done the first take. Keoghan added, “I was like, ‘Let’s go again. Let’s go again.’ You kind of forget, because there’s such a comfortable environment created, and it gives you that license to go, ‘All right, this is about the story now.'”

James McAvoy

James McAvoy performing onstage Jeff Spicer/Getty Images
Some people might know James McAvoy from the “X-Men” franchise, where he played a young Charles Xavier, or from other well-received films such as “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” and “The Last King of Scotland.” He has also been closely associated with M. Night Shyamalan, appearing in both “Split” and “Glass” in the last decade. The actor is also known for his stage work, and it is in the theater that he finds the most enjoyment when performing without any clothes.

McAvoy admitted that he likes being totally open on stage, without any protection from the audience, which gives him a sense of freedom. He told the Daily Star, “I like to get naked. Naked on film is not that much fun, but naked on stage is really quite freeing because there’s nowhere to hide, you’re completely vulnerable. When you’re completely vulnerable, it can’t get any worse, can it?”

Lena Dunham

Hannah eating foodHBO
Probably best known for her work on the HBO series “Girls,” which she created and starred in, Lena Dunham is an award-winning writer and actor. Throughout her career, she has been an outspoken supporter of women and body positivity, although she has also courted controversy on many occasions. She has discussed this in the past, claiming that her parents instilled a healthy attitude toward her body by raising her to see beauty in all people and body types.

That is partly why Dunham has been so open to including nudity in “Girls” as a way of normalizing sex and showing a more realistic depiction of the act that most women actually experience and can relate to. “[The show is about] saying to women, ‘Oh that’s not your sexual experience? You’re not alone,'” she told Huffington Post. “It’s been very heartening to have the reactions from women, who said it normalized a lot for them.” However, she has admitted in recent years that she doesn’t enjoy doing nude scenes quite as much as she used to, as she has grown more modest as she has aged.

Kristen Wiig

Alice Klieg naked in casinoAlchemy
Kristen Wiig is a comedian and actor who debuted on “Saturday Night Live” in 2005 and stayed for seven years, subsequently appearing in movies such as “Knocked Up,” “Bridesmaids,” and “The Martian.” In 2014, she also starred in the comedy-drama “Welcome to Me,” playing a woman who wins the lottery and begins broadcasting her own show after moving into a casino. Suffering from borderline personality disorder, she stops her medications and makes a number of bizarre decisions as her mental health deteriorates.

This culminates in a scene where Wiig’s character walks naked through the casino floor. Wiig found it exhilarating, if a little scary, to do the scene, as it meant she could be seen by the cast and crew as well as everybody else inside the real-life casino. “I was terrified to do it, for the obvious reasons,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “And then after I did it, I was like, oh this is actually kind of freeing, how many people can say they were just walking around a public place naked with a bunch of people around?”

Hayley Atwell

Lady Julia Flyte in a carBuena Vista International
Many viewers will know Hayley Atwell for her roles in films such as “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” but she also had a long career in both television and less high-profile movies during her early days as an actor. It was during this time that audiences were more likely to see her naked, especially now that she has seemingly changed her stance when it comes to onscreen nudity and avoids it unless it’s necessary.

That was not always the case, though, with Atwell revealing she had previously enjoyed stripping off for a role. According to the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag (via Bild), Atwell had a positive experience working on the 2008 film “Brideshead Revisited,” an adaptation of the novel of the same name by author Evelyn Waugh. The actor seemingly enjoyed the fact that she was able to show off her body without worrying about what people would think. “Nude scenes can be very liberating,” Atwell told the newspaper. “I feel very human. This is me, with all my little imperfections.”

Jason Segel

Peter Bretter on the phoneUniversal Pictures
Like many actors and comedians who got their start on Judd Apatow projects, Jason Segel starred in the television series “Freaks and Geeks.” Appearing alongside the likes of Seth Rogen, Martin Starr, Linda Cardellini, and James Franco, Segel established himself as a leading actor and went on to star in the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” for nine years, a part that didn’t exactly call for much nudity.

That wasn’t the case for the film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” where the actor is shown naked very early in the film after being unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend, played by Kristen Bell. Segel has since spoken about the scene and the fact that he wasn’t all that bothered about being nude, which makes sense considering he actually wrote the film. Segel explained to Vulture that the moment was necessary to help keep viewers guessing about what would happen next. “The full-frontal nudity,” he said. “I thought that was hilarious. I was actually not very uncomfortable doing it. I really felt free.”

Sebastian Stan

Lance Tucker in blue jacketSony Pictures Classics
Most viewers will know Sebastian Stan best for his role as Bucky Barnes — also known as the Winter Soldier — in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the actor has appeared in plenty of darker and more adult-oriented projects over the years, and Stan has never been afraid of appearing nude in films, despite his most famous role coming in Disney’s MCU. In one role for the 2015 film “The Bronze,” the actor’s character is involved in a funny sexual encounter. “I was maybe too enthusiastic about it,” Stan told Vulture. “But I certainly, uh, brought everything I had.”

He later went on to explain that he wasn’t nervous about taking off his clothes and knew straight away that he wanted to do the comedy moment full justice and really commit. He explained, “I just thought, ‘You know what, you’ve just got to jump in the water sometimes, right?’ You’ve just got to take your clothes off and go for it. I had no hesitation. I was very happy about it.”

Ben Affleck

Nicholas Dunne standing in shower20th Century Studios
In many ways, Ben Affleck has had a career that many actors would envy. He’s done everything from portraying Batman to writing the award-winning “Good Will Hunting” and directing the highly acclaimed “Argo.” Yet fans have rarely had the opportunity to see Affleck in the buff, with the actor seemingly choosing to keep his clothes on while on the screen.

However, the “Argo” director said on “The Daily Show” that he wanted to keep one particular scene in the movie but was convinced by the rest of the cast and crew to cut it down. The shot in question involved a nude depiction of Affleck’s character in a shower. He eventually got his wish, though, in the 2014 mystery thriller “Gone Girl.” Affleck revealed to MTV News that he finally got to appear naked via a brief full-frontal shot of him that appears in the film.

From what he told MTV, Affleck was very happy to strip off for “Gone Girl,” even if it was just for just a few seconds. “I try to get it in every movie,” Affleck joked in the interview. “The penis is in there! It’s IMAX penis! You’ve gotta pay 15 bucks to see it in 3D … it’s better in 3D.”

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