For the most recent season of You, Penn Badgley asked producers to do fewer sex scenes out of respect for his marriage. He said, "Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me. It's got to the point where I don't want to [film sex scenes]."
1. Samuel L. Jackson has appeared in over 150 movies and has avoided showing full-frontal nudity in all of them. He said if he ever had to, he'd probably ask for a "dick double."
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2. Megan Fox has turned down roles because they have graphic sex scenes that she wouldn't want her family to see. She said, "There are some good projects I've read that are with talented people, talented directors, but the things the women are required to do in the movie are things I can't have my sons ever know or see."
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3. Penn Badgley asked You creator Sera Gamble for fewer sex scenes in Season 4 out of respect for his marriage. He explained that his "desire would be zero, to go from 100 to zero” but was willing to compromise with the writers.??
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He also added that because of the nature of the series, he knew zero intimate scenes might not be possible. "I signed this contract. I signed up for this show. I know what I did. You can't take this aspect out of the DNA of the concept, 'So how much less can you make it?' was my question to them." And luckily, he didn't receive any pushback at all from producers. "[Sera] was really glad that I was that honest. She was sort of almost, I want to say empowered, she had a really positive response. They came back with a phenomenal reduction.”??
4. Keira Knightley decided that she would no longer film nude scenes for male directors after she became a mother in 2015. She explained, "I don’t have an absolute ban, but I kind of do with men. It’s partly vanity, and also, it’s the male gaze."
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5. Neal McDonough refuses to kiss any woman other than his wife and won't film any sex scenes. He even lost a role on the soap opera Scoundrels because of it.
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"I am very religious. I put God and family first, and me second. That’s what I live by. It was hard for a few years. Then [Band of Brothers producer] Graham Yost called me and said, 'Hey, I want you to be the bad guy on Justified.' I knew that was my shot back at the title."??
6. Rebel Wilson specifically adds a strict "no nudity" clause in her contracts when she films comedies.
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Rebel told Marie Claire UK that producers wanted full-frontal nudity while she was filming The Brothers Grimsby. "We write in the contract, specifically, 'No nudity.' They got in another girl — this larger burlesque dancer from South Africa — to be a nude double. And they got her to do all this stuff. Sacha [Baron Cohen, the movie's writer and star] would go, 'See, she looks good.' I'm like, 'I'm not doing it. I don't care what you say.'"
When asked if she'd consider appearing nude in a more serious role, she added, "You want to know that the people [behind the camera] have a certain sensibility and decency. And a lot of times in comedy, they're not those people."??
7. Anna Kendrick refuses to do nude scenes at all. She actually used a body double when her character had to appear naked in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates.
8. Julia Roberts has been in films that require raunchy sex scenes, but in order for her to do the film, she insists that the scenes be toned down.
9. Allison Williams was the only main actor from Girls who didn't appear nude onscreen. She explained that she didn't want her future kids to see her naked onscreen and added, "I just wanted to give Marnie almost all of myself. But there were things that felt like they should be mine and felt like they should always be mine."
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