Sex with a double. Celebrities who DIDN’T DARE to appear in EROTIC SCENES
The film, apart from providing us with a lot of entertainment, sometimes brazenly uses our inattention. For the comfort of the creators or actors, it often uses small screen lies. One of them is the presence of doubles. Nude scenes, sex sequences are not easy even for experienced actors. As it turns out, body doubling is not uncommon in the film industry. The services of understudies were used by such stars as Mila Kunis, Emilia Clarke, Keira Knightley and Willem Dafoe. However, the reasons why artists decide to use replacements are different, sometimes extremely different. The most important thing is that this change of roles is imperceptible to the viewer. So it’s worth checking which movie deceived you, because you melted over the body of a given actor or actress, and in fact it belonged to a modest understudy.
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Farmiga, the actress known from the horror series The Conjuring, has decided to fill in Jason Reitman’s Oscar-nominated drama Up in the Air. Her body double appears in the buttocks-exposing shots of the bed scene that the actress shared with George Clooney. Thanks to the skillful assembly, however, you can’t see the reversal of roles. In her opinion, Farmiga had a very good explanation. The erotic scene in the 2009 film was shot just weeks after the 36-year-old gave birth to her son. According to her, it was not the right time to parade in front of the camera naked. Her figure, especially from behind, was not satisfactory in her opinion. However, the woman did not seem disappointed, as she proved by joking that “the milk flowing from her breasts would not be appropriate there” and that “what viewers want to see the most are George’s buttocks, anyway.”
Willem Dafoe, The Antichrist
Men, though less often, sometimes also need a body double. Willem Dafoe himself tried to get one on the set of Lars von Trier’s controversial Antichrist. Still, he didn’t do it out of prudishness or shame. On the contrary, he had no reason to. This decision was made by the director, who – as he confessed in “Boston Phoenix” in 2009 – said that the American actor’s penis was too big. He also added that “everyone on set was very confused when they saw him.” So the director decided to invest in a double from the porn industry, who replaced Dafoe in scenes that emphasize male genitalia. All this so that the actor’s genitals, generously endowed by nature, do not attract too much attention from the viewers. If you think about it longer, you could come to the conclusion that the fact that the actor took his first steps in the industry by shooting amateur porn is not that strange at all.
Keira Knightley, Domino
“I have a rule about the films I’m in – I can show the top but not the bottom,” the actress confessed in an interview regarding her role in Tony Scott’s Domino. And that was reason enough to hire an understudy to replace Knightley in some parts of the sexy striptease scene. The heroine of Domino Harvey performs a sensual dance in underwear in front of a group of excited, aroused men. There are also some subtle close-ups of her buttocks, but these are no longer the actress’s buttocks. The woman also recalls what the casting for the understudy looked like: “So I went to the room with the director Tony Scott, when three girls came in and just lowered their pants in front of us. The director then said: »So which one do you want?«. […] I tried to choose buttocks that have a shape similar to mine, but a little better. […] The girl we chose had a beautiful ass.” Two years later, the artist also used the services of a body double – on the set of the 2007 film Atonement. This time, the replaced part of the body was not the buttocks, but the feet.
Drew Barrymore, Poison Ivy
Eighteen-year-old Barrymore decided to abandon the roles of little girls, thanks to which she gained fame, in favor of erotic cinema. Although the actress takes part in really bold erotic scenes, the breasts that belong to her character Ivy are not the breasts of the actress, but doubles. Barrymore recalls that she was not thrilled with the prospect of revealing her charms in front of the camera. The fact that the film was aimed only at a European audience helped her make her decision. Ultimately, however, the film went to the American market, which Drew Barrymore sourly summed up in an interview for “Movieline”: “Well, no offense, but I have prettier breasts than that girl. I’m appalled that America will think those on the screen belong to me.”
Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones
Playing the role of the silver-haired dragon queen Daenerys, Emilia Clarke quickly became an on-screen symbol of beauty and seduction. Interestingly, however, until the fifth season of the famous Game of Thrones, the actress often used the help of her equally beautiful and, more importantly, surprisingly similar double Rosie Mac, who replaced her in nude or erotic scenes. This decision is related to Clarke’s approach to on-screen sex scenes. “I don’t like intrusive sex that throws you in the face. I’ve always believed that the suggestion is more arousing than the actual act of sex,” she told The Daily Mail. She also argues that sex scenes in movies should be more subtle. Well, given how sex in Game of Thrones sometimes looks like, the comments of the British woman seem to be in place. Although there are actresses in the series such as Carice van Houten, who is not ashamed to reveal her nudity in front of the camera, Clarke was not alone in her attitude. Lena Headey also decided to use the services of an understudy in the famous scene of the penitential march. But let’s get back to Emilia Clarke: Rosie Mac just after the fifth season announced that she was leaving the series. The actress playing the role of Daenerys then decided to focus on her own body, resigning from the help of doubles. Her first scene in which she clearly exposes her nudity is a sequence from the sixth season, from the episode Book of the Stranger – tongues of fire envelop the naked body of the heroine emerging from the fire, but not doing her any harm. “It’s all me, proud and strong. It’s my body, not doubles,” Clarke told Entertainment Weekly.
Maja Budka