Several actors in Hollywood don’t feel 100 percent comfortable in executing a fully nude scene, and it’s fully understandable – which is why parts are sometimes covered or acted out.
But in some situations, the actors do not want to strip down in front of the cameras and crew, and instead hire body doubles to take their place to shoot the more revealing shots required.
Same goes for sex scenes, as some actors are perfectly comfortable in carrying them out themselves for full authenticity, but other A-Listers steer clear of this, or are selective of what they show.
With that being said, here is a list of 10 celebrities that have used body doubles in on-screen sex scenes, which could explain any odd camera angles you may have noticed in the TV show or film’s final cut.
Natalie Portman in Your Highness
Natalie Portman in Your Highness (Universal Pictures)
The Black Swan star chose to use a body double for her nude scenes in the 2011 comedy, alongside James Franco and Danny McBride, particularly in the scene where her character strips to get into a lake.
Film student Caroline Davis, who later starred in the first season of Game of Thrones, said that she was paid about £250 to strip down for the swimming scene and told The Irish Sun that she ‘jumped at the chance to be on set’.
Keira Knightley in Domino
Keira Knightley plays a former model and had to perform a strip tease (Paramount Pictures)
The British actress, just 20 at the time, chose to have a body double as she wasn’t comfortable with showing everything off, while also not being completely confident about her body.
She said on The Jonathan Ross Show in 2012: “I have this policy in films where I say, ‘You can have the top half but you can’t have the bottom half’, and it kind of works quite well.
“And there was this scene in Domino where I was meant to do a bit of a strip tease and a dance with a thong on. I was just like, ‘It’s not going to happen’. And so I said, ‘Could you get me a bottom please?'”
Emilia Clarke in Game of Thrones
Clarke cut down on nude scenes as GOT went on (HBO)
Clarke is one that most fans may be surprised to see on the list, but it turns out that while she did nude scenes as Daenerys Targaryen in earlier seasons of the HBO hit show, she later used body doubles for intimate scenes after becoming more selective about nudity on-screen.
She said on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard in 2019 that she wasn’t aware of the nudity when accepting the job, saying: “I took the job and then they sent me the scripts and I was reading them, and I was like, ‘Oh, there’s the catch!’
“But I’d come fresh from drama school and I approached it as a job: if it’s in the script then it’s clearly needed. This is what this is and I’m going to make sense of it and that’s what I’m going to do and everything’s going to be cool.”
However, she said that she is a ‘a lot more savvy with what I’m comfortable with’, adding: “I’ve had fights on set before where I’m like, ‘no, the sheet stays up’, and they’re like, ‘you don’t wanna disappoint your Game Of Thrones fans’. And I’m like, ‘f*** you’.”
Lena Headey in Game of Thrones
The ‘shame’ scene has gone down as one of the show’s most powerful (HBO)
It’s a double-whammy from the show, as the actor behind Cersei Lannister had a body double for the iconic ‘walk of shame’ scene where she made to walk naked through the streets, as Headey preferred to focus on the emotional aspects of the scene.
Headey explained that she had ‘many reasons’ not to be naked, and said that she was shocked after people thought she was ‘less of an actress because I didn’t get my t*ts out’.”
She said: “The thought of being naked for three days and trying to contain her in the way she would be… I think I would feel very angry. I didn’t want to be angry. I don’t think Cersei would be angry. I film every year and I have kids and it was just too much on top of that.”
Mila Kunis in Friends with Benefits
Mila Kunis revealed she had butt double in Friends with Benefits (Sony)
In her 2011 romcom opposite Justin Timberlake, Kunis revealed that a body double had been hired for certain scenes.
She’s been very vocal about not doing steamy scenes with actors in the past, and despite Timberlake’s butt making an appearance in the film, she still steered clear, joking: “I showed side-boob, and I figured I can’t just give away everything all at once.
“I gotta let it all out in little pieces here and there.”
Angelina Jolie in Wanted
Angelina Jolie played an assassin in the memorable thriller (Universal Pictures)
The Hollywood A-lister has shot nude scenes in the past, but chose to use a body double for the 2008 thriller opposite James McAvoy.
Jolie’s reason for choosing not to go nude in front of the camera is still unknown despite speculation, but the fact of the matter is she didn’t do it for this title.
Isla Fisher in The Wedding Crashers
Isla Fisher’s character in the romcom was particularly memorable (New Line Cinema)
The comedy classic also stars Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Rachel McAdams, but Fisher didn’t feel comfortable with one of the intimate scenes in the 2005 title.
The Australian actress said that she had a ‘hand double’ for the under-the-table scene, for example, adding: “I had a breast double for the boob-in-the-face and I had a butt double. That may have been the same person.”
Explaining why, she said: “My argument was, if you see a character’s breast, she’s no longer funny,
“You see her as someone sexual rather than as someone funny. I lost that argument with the producers. In fact, they wanted her to be naked, I think, through five scenes.”
Olivia Wilde in The Change-Up
Olivia Wilde had computer generated breasts for the comedy (Universal Pictures)
Wilde stars in the comedy alongside Hollywood heavyweights, Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, sharing a steamy scene with the former – though it wasn’t 100 percent legitimate.
This is slightly different, using a computer generated replacement for her breasts as she originally wore pasties, which ended up being too obvious, so producers had ‘no choice’ to use CGI for the sex scene.
“I wasn’t actually naked but now appear to be naked because… in that scene Ryan Reynolds is supposed to be covering them (with his body) and he moved and so the pasties were in the movie and so they had to paint in nipples using CGI,” she revealed.
Penélope Cruz in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Penelope Cruz needed a body double as she was pregnant (Walt Disney Pictures)
During filming, Cruz was pregnant, so got none other than her sister, Monica Cruz, to serve as her body double in certain scenes, including steamier shots.
Director Rob Marshall hired Monica to stand in her place, because well, they share the same genes.
“I did a couple of months of training and did what I was able to do, but I couldn’t do everything, just what was safe. Monica came at the end to do some scenes. She’s a dancer and very good with a sword because she’s done a film herself.” the actor told The Telegraph.
Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman
Julia Roberts didn’t act out any of the nude scenes in the film (Touchstone Pictures)
The 1990 classic is last, and Roberts famously used a body double in Shelley Michelle for the nude shots in the film, though many people may not have known previously.
In fact, the movie’s well-known poster is Shelley striking the pose, with Roberts’ head edited over the top, according to Vogue, though the actress has never publicly addressed it.