Emma Thompson on the Female Challenge of Shooting a Nude Scene at 62
Highly acclaimed actress and screenwriter Emma Thompson candidly expresses the female challenge of filming a fully nude scene at 62. Explicitly, Thompson highlights society’s unyielding demands placed on women’s bodies.
Thompson shot the scene alongside Daryl McCormack for their forthcoming film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. The movie itself is sex-positive, centering around a widow (Thompson) who hires a male prostitute (McCormack) to fulfill her sexual needs.
“Sophie [Hyde], Daryl, and I rehearsed entirely nude and talked about our bodies, talked about our relationship with our bodies, drew them, discussed the things that we find difficult about, things we like about them, described one another’s bodies,” shared Thompson.
Thompson recounts a paradoxical predicament as she explains the necessity and controversy behind her age. The actress claims she wouldn’t have successfully delivered the scene at any other point in her life. However, her age simultaneously served as a hindrance given the unforgiving beauty standards surrounding women in the spotlight.
“And yet, of course, the age that I am makes it extremely challenging because we aren’t used to seeing untreated bodies on the screen… We’re used to seeing bodies that have been worked on to make them acceptable to our eyes. We’ve got to be able to see real bodies on the screens.”
“We aren’t used to seeing untreated bodies on the screen. We’re used to seeing bodies that have been worked on…for a long time to make them acceptable to our eyes.” – Emma Thompson (GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE) at #Sundance 2022’s Cinema Café presented by @audible_com pic.twitter.com/j5Cklp1hja
— SundanceFilmFestival (@sundancefest) January 24, 2022
Thompson’s daringness to shake up the status quo will hopefully encourage the film industry to embrace and uplift toward the natural female body. Thompson has previously expressed her reluctance and skepticism toward plastic surgery.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry watching GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE. It’s an entrancing & intimate look at sexuality—how we approach it, how we perceive it, how we enjoy it & whether we should be allowed to—as well as the safety we crave in an oftentimes cold world. pic.twitter.com/JobQsdrU48
— sundance poser™️ Josie 🇵🇷 (@TheJosieMarie) January 26, 2022
Precisely, Thompson pinpoints a scene in which her character drops her robe and gazes herself over in the mirror with no attached judgments or criticisms. Thompson notes this scene was demanding given that she had never taken part in such an ‘extraordinary’ experience with her physique. The act of examining one’s body so impassively was unfamiliar to the actress.
