Baring it all. Theo James, Dakota Johnson and more actors have opened up about their nude scenes — and broke down the experience of going full frontal.
The England native raised eyebrows with his performance as Cameron during season 2 of The White Lotus. The hit HBO series, which returned for its second run in October 2022, focuses on the guests and employees at a fictional resort.
In a memorable scene from the sophomore season, Harper (Aubrey Plaza) accidentally snuck a peek at Cameron (James) while he undressed. At the time, the Divergent actor discussed the work that went into bringing the NSFW moment to life.
“The truth of it was you go into these things and you have a conversation with the director and the producers, and they go, ‘OK, for this, we’re going to use a prosthetic, we’re gonna use something,’” he explained during a December 2022 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “It’s a pee-pee prosthetic.”
For the Golden Boy star, it was important that the prosthetic wouldn’t be too “distracting” for the audience. “He needs to be [a] regular Joe because the scene’s not about the pee-pee, it’s about power play in sex [and] whether he did it deliberately or whether it was an accident,” he added.
James joked about his reaction after watching the scene for the first time, saying, “I mean, it’s bigger than that. It’s like she stole it off a donkey in the field. The thing is ginormous.”
Johnson, for her part, has also been candid about playing Anastasia in the film version of E. L. James‘ 50 Shades of Grey trilogy. Amid its release, the movies made headlines for its explicit sex scenes.
“It’s stressful enough to be tied to a bed naked in a scene,” the actress revealed to Glamour in 2015 about filming the sex scenes. “But then they call cut, and you’re still tied to the bed, naked. Jamie [Dornan] would be the first one to throw a blanket over me.”
According to BAFTA nominee, the worst part was the idea of her parents, Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, seeing her naked on screen. “My mom came up for a day [during filming]. She’s proud of me,” Dakota detailed. “But I don’t want my family to see [the movie], because it’s inappropriate. Or my brothers’ friends, who I grew up with. I think they’d be like, ‘Blegh.’ Also there’s part of me that’s like, I don’t want anyone to see this movie. Just kidding.”
The Social Network star later admitted that she was tired of filming racy sex scenes for the franchise, telling Interview magazine in 2016, “Well, we’re not having actual sex. But I’ve been simulating sex for seven hours straight right now, and I’m over it.”
Scroll down for more candid commentary from actors about going full frontal: