How Actors' Families Really Reacted To Their Nude Scenes
Most actors can't wait to share their newest movies with their families — unless, of course, the role in question involves the actor stripping down or simulating passionate sex. In that awkward scenario, many actors will probably try to convince their family that the movie is too boring and they won't want to sit through it. And if their parents (or grandparents, or spouse, or children) insist on watching it anyway, the actor will probably invent a reason to leave the room right before the scene where they are going to drop trou. (No doubt the cast of "Game of Thrones" has gotten plenty of practice coming up with such excuses.)
Whether an actor likes it or not, nude scenes can often be a family affair. Sooner or later, a family member will catch wind of a scene that shows a little too much or catch a glimpse of bare buttocks they never thought they would be seeing on the big screen. Plenty of actors have been in the uncomfortable position of watching their nude scenes with their parents, letting their spouses watch their nude scenes, or talking about their nude scenes with their children. There's even an actor and director who collaborated on a sex scene and just happen to be mother and son. Below, we will share what happened when the families of these celebrities saw more skin than they were expecting.
Emilia Clarke in Game of Thrones
After showing a lot of skin in the first three seasons of "Game of Thrones" (and not without reluctance), Emilia Clarke finally put her foot down. As the actress gained more confidence, she fought against unnecessary nude scenes, so she managed to go for two seasons without taking off her clothes. However, Clarke ultimately broke that streak, because in Season 6, Daenerys went streaking again. In the episode "Book of the Stranger," Clarke's character burns down an entire temple and emerges from the flames, naked but unscathed.
Emilia Clarke told "Live! With Kelly" that her parents were supportive of her work but weren't really keeping up with the latest seasons because they felt their daughter had a more diminished role in the show. According to Clarke, her parents told her, "Darling, you're not doing much in this season." Wanting to show her parents that the Mother of Dragons hadn't lost her spark, Clarke begged them to watch a certain episode, where her character left a very strong impression. She had forgotten, of course, that this also happened to be the episode where Dany burned away all her clothes. Clarke remembered this only as she sat down with her family to watch it. As the actress recalls, the moment her parents were exposed to Dany in all of her fiery glory, her dad cried, "Again?"
Yes, again. To be fair, this moment was a much more tasteful use of nudity, one that Clarke felt much more comfortable with.
Meghan Markle in Suits
Before becoming the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle was known for her role as Rachel in "Suits." In one memorable scene, Rachel and Mike (Patrick J. Adams) have sex in an unexpected location. Balanced against a shelf of filing cabinets, Rachel makes love to Mike with great enthusiasm. It would be hard for anyone to forget this scene, but it was hardest of all for Markle's husband Prince Harry.
Although Harry had known Markle was an actress, he hadn't been familiar with that particular scene until after they had already begun dating. "I'd made the mistake of googling and watching some of her love scenes online," wrote Harry in his memoir "Spare." Harry said, "I'd witnessed her and a castmate mauling each other in some sort of office or conference room," adding, "It would take electric shock therapy to get those images out of my head."
Meanwhile, Markle's extended family (you know, the royal extended family) took the news in stride. According to Harry, Kate Middleton and Prince William knew of Markle from "Suits" before he introduced the actress as his girlfriend. They were surprised, certainly, that Harry was dating a famous actress, but presumably, they didn't find it the least bit embarrassing that she had done sex scenes before. In fact, they were huge fans of Markle. Harry wrote, "All this time I'd thought Willy and Kate might not welcome Meg into the family, but now I had to worry about them hounding her for an autograph."
Mila Kunis in Black Swan
In the most notorious scene from "Black Swan," Odile (Mila Kunis) persuades Nina (Natalie Portman) to have just one little drink the night before her big ballet rehearsal. The next thing Nina knows, she is in bed with Odile, doing naughty things that you probably shouldn't do when you are still living with your mother. Naturally, Nina's mom (Barbara Hershey) discovers what her daughter has been doing.
One actress from "Black Swan" was faced with a situation almost as awkward as what Nina experienced. Mila Kunis needed to figure out how to tell her father that her newest movie role involved a graphic sex scene (which Kunis says she didn't enjoy filming). "I don't think any dad should see [a scene like that]," Kunis told MTV. "It's just not necessary." Once her father heard about that scene, he was reluctant to watch "Black Swan." Eventually, the two came to an agreement: Her father would watch most of the movie, but when the sex scene was about to come on, Mila would nonchalantly give her dad a cue and he would step outside the room.
"I just don't think he wants to envision his daughter doing that kind of thing," Kunis shared in an interview with Parade. She added that if "Black Swan" made her father uncomfortable, he probably wouldn't want to watch his daughter in "Friends with Benefits" either, since this raunchy sex comedy has plenty more where that came from.
Rupert Grint in Cherrybomb
After the notorious sequence from "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1" where Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Hermoine (Emma Watson) are shown in the nude, you would think that Rupert Grint would be feeling left out. How come good ol' Ron didn't have an opportunity to strip down?
Actually, at this point in his career, Grint had already shot a nude scene for a different movie. In case you've forgotten, this "Harry Potter" star has also appeared in movies that are considerably more adult, such as 2009's "Cherrybomb." In that film, Grint is shown in bed with a girl — the actor's first nude scene. Discussing watching the film with his parents, Grint told Mirror, "It was agonising. The scene's quite tastefully done but it's not the sort of moment you really want to share with your mum and dad."
Unfortunately, you can't always get what you want in life, which is why Grint needed to sit in the same room as his parents while they saw their son's first nude scene. His parents received an advanced DVD copy of the film and began watching it with him, not knowing what they were in for. "When the scene arrived we all sat there not really saying anything," Grint shared. "Afterwards nobody talked about it, which was kind of a relief." Of course, Grint's mortification didn't stop him from doing more nude scenes, including a sequence for "Wild Target" where he sits in a bath of milk and then stands up.
Kristen Stewart in On the Road
After a cringe-worthy sex scene in "Twilight: Breaking Dawn – Part 1," Kristen Stewart filmed another steamy scene for "On the Road," in which her character rides topless in the front seat of a car. Stewart first signed onto the movie at age 16, but she didn't start filming it until she was 21. "I think everyone [in my family] was really happy that it took a few years for the movie to get made," she told Awards Daily, implying that her parents were relieved she wouldn't be doing her first nude scene until she was older. She also assured listeners that her mom was glad her daughter participated in the project.
If anything, as Stewart said in the same interview, "'Welcome to the Rileys' was probably a more difficult movie for a parent to watch." Although Stewart didn't need to take off her clothes to play a teenage stripper in "Welcome to the Rileys," it was still an emotionally intense role. "It just rocked me and I think my parents could probably feel that as well," said Stewart. Most likely her parents found it less upsetting watching their daughter show some skin than seeing her become so vulnerable for a role — especially because said role required their daughter to step into the shoes of a teenage sex worker.
For her part, Stewart has no regrets. Speaking of her nude scenes, Stewart told MacLean's, "As long as you're being honest there's nothing to be ashamed of."
Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby
Unlike most of these actors, Brooke Shields did not film a nude scene only for her parents to find out later. Instead, Brooke's mother, Teri Shields, was also her manager, so she knew about the nude scene from the get-go. At age 11, Brooke portrayed a child sex worker in the controversial 1978 film "Pretty Baby." Her character is shown kissing a grown man, posing for nude photographs, and even being auctioned to brothel patrons.
Teri Shields tried to shelter her daughter from most of the film's public backlash. Yet when she couldn't shield her daughter any longer, Teri assured her daughter that it didn't matter what anybody else thought of her. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Brooke recalled her mother telling her, "Are you proud of what you did? Well, then f*** 'em."
Most parents need to have "the talk" with their children once they hit puberty, but Brooke Shields also needed to have another conversation with her children: discussing the controversial film that mommy did as a kid. Her daughters had very different reactions. Brooke told NPR, "On the one hand, my older daughter said, this needs to be seen. This is going to help women, people. And my other daughter was just very disturbed, never wants to see it again." The actress shared that she knew it was hard for her children to reconcile the woman they knew as their mother with the woman she had been in the past.
If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.
Zac Efron in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
For "The Lucky One," Zac Efron stripped down to film a sex scene with Taylor Schilling (but nothing too explicit, since it was a PG-13 movie). Later, his mom attended the film's premiere, which Efron admits made him uncomfortable. "Even though she was a couple of seats down from me, I tried to duck out during those scenes," Efron told People, "because it was too embarrassing. Obviously I'm acting, but knowing that my mom and my family were watching is kind of awkward." Of course, he assured audiences that his mom still loved his performance.
The actor's mother also chastised him after she visited while he was filming a nude scene for "Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising." His mother glimpsed him holding his prosthetic balls. (Actors often use prosthetics for their nude scenes.) As Efron told Us Weekly, his mother sent him a photo of it along with the message, "Please, what are you doing?" Zac Efron tried to explain to his mother that in certain contexts it is socially acceptable to display your prosthetic testicles, telling her, "It's for the film, Mom." His mother wasn't convinced, replying, "Have some class!"
Efron has shared that if he's going to show any more of his body (as in, not prosthetics but the real deal), it wouldn't be for just any film. "It'd better be for an Academy Award-winning movie," he told Elle. How's that for class?
Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road
The only thing more awkward than watching a sex scene that your romantic partner shot with another actor is actually being there behind the camera while the two pretend to make love. Luckily for Kate Winslet, Sam Mendes (her husband at the time) handled it like a champ.
In "Revolutionary Road," Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio play a couple whose marriage is falling apart. For this film, Winslet participated in multiple sex scenes — one with David Harbour in the back of a car (complete with a hand up against the glass, "Titanic" style) and another with DiCaprio on a kitchen counter. For each of these scenes, Winslet's husband was always close by (seeing as he was the director). Winslet and Mendes told Entertainment Weekly what this was like. According to Winslet, DiCaprio told her it was no big deal, to which she replied, "You're my best friend. He's my husband. This is a bit weird."
Meanwhile, Mendes took it in stride. "I will admit it was quite bizarre to direct my wife in how to make love," Mendes added. "But it's difficult whether you're married to a person or not." Mendes shared that he found it easier to direct the scene when he wasn't in the same room, instead watching the pair on monitors. Mendes told The Guardian that he sometimes needed to shout, "Leo, don't bang her head so hard against the kitchen cabinets!" which is probably something Mendes never expected to be saying in his career.
Elizabeth Hurley in Strictly Confidential
Suppose you are directing an erotic thriller and are shooting a scene in which a woman has sex with her late daughter's friend (Pear Chiravara). Who would you cast to play the former? For director Damien Hurley, the choice was obvious: He would give the part to his mother, actress Elizabeth Hurley.
Originally, this role from the movie "Strictly Confidential" was written for a man, but Damien decided to shake things up. He thought it would be more interesting if the dead girl's mother was the one having the affair. The director explained to Vogue, "The second I had that part, it made total sense to beg — beg — my mighty mother to come on board." His mother was happy to participate and felt completely at ease with her son behind the camera.
Was it strange for Damien Hurley to not only watch his mother grind up against a woman but also guide his mother through the entire scene? Damien told The Sunday Times, "I hate to say that it felt totally normal. I don't know what that says about us." It seems like it was business as usual for the acting-directing pair. Given that so many other actors are hesitant to discuss their nude scenes with their families, it is certainly refreshing to see one family member who doesn't bat an eye. Nevertheless, as soon as fans on X (formerly Twitter) caught wind that Hurley's son was directing her sex scenes, they did not hold back.
Sydney Sweeney in Euphoria
"Euphoria" contains a startling amount of sex and nudity — even for an HBO series — and the scenes with Sydney Sweeney are no exception. Sweeney portrays Cassie, a popular yet deeply insecure girl. The character films nude videos for her boyfriend, and then later those videos are circulated all over the school.
When Sweeney's family saw her "Euphoria" nude scenes, each member of her family had a very different reaction. Her mom was already on board with Sweeney portraying Cassie, having discussed the role at length with her daughter and visiting her on set. Her father, on the other hand ... "I didn't prepare my dad at all," Sweeney admitted in an interview with Today. The actress recalled being so exhilarated at the thought of attending a huge premiere that she invited her whole family, not considering whose nude body might be appearing on the screen.
According to Sweeney, her father neglected to tell her that he was starting to watch the show, so she didn't get a chance to warn him — and even worse, Sweeney's father invited her grandparents to watch it with him. "My dad and my grandpa turned it off and walked out," she told Today. "But my grandma, she's a big supporter of mine." In an interview with Ellen, Sweeney insisted, "[My grandma] said I have the best t*ts in Hollywood."
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).