Disrobing in front of the camera no longer carries quite the same stigma it used to,
but that doesn't mean every actor is willing to do it.
Here are some stars who aren't willing to appear naked onscreen and the reasons why.
Mila Kunis landed the role of Jackie on That '70s Show when she was only fourteen years
old.
She's had steady roles ever since, including 2010's Black Swan, which landed her a Golden
Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Kunis played a ballerina in that film and she's revealed that her physical appearance
in it brought about a good deal of media scrutiny.
When she starred in Friends with Benefits the following year, her body once again became
a subject of interest.
Kunis had to do a love scene with her co-star Justin Timberlake.
Timberlake is a friend of hers, so, as she told Allure, the scene wound up being more
"funny and mechanical" than titillating.
"I keep my socks on.
Intimacy issues."
"Great, 'cause feet gross me out.
Daddy issues."
"Great."
But the issue of nudity still happened to come up.
She did show some "side boob" but not her rear end.
As she put it,
"You get one or the other.
You don't need both."
In 2007, Mandy Moore was coming off a string of acting roles that really cemented her status
as a leading lady in Hollywood.
Between 2006 and 2007 alone, she had ten credits to her name, but, according to an interview
with USA Today at the time, that number could've been higher, if only she'd agreed to appear
nude.
As she explained,
"It would be completely uncomfortable to walk down the street and know that the person passing
by had seen me without my clothes on.
I've turned down several roles where the producers or directors or writers wouldn't budge on
that point."
That no-nudity clause also extends to men's magazines.
While Moore doesn't consider herself a prude, taking off her clothing is just something
she's never wanted to do.
As she told USA Today,
"I'm not saying that it's wrong for someone else to do them, but I think there's a way
to be feminine and sexy without posing half-naked."
When Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner were doing press for their 2009 film The Invention
of Lying, an MTV News reporter made the mistake of comparing Gervais' shirtless body to that
of one of Garner's previous co-stars, Matthew McConaughey.
Gervais took the comment in stride, but it did raise the question as to whether or not
he'd be willing to take it all off for a future role.
Gervais declared that there was "no chance" of him doing nudity.
When Garner chimed in to say that she wouldn't bare all either, he continued,
"Okay, well then it's equal.
It's joint equal at 'No way!'
Absolutely no way!"
When pushed, however, Gervais did quietly hint at the prospect of faking a future nude
scene, so long as he, quote, "had a stunt one."
Sarah Jessica Parker has a career spanning four decades, and over that time, she's famously
refused to appear nude for any one of her projects.
In 2018, she spoke with People Magazine about her early experiences as an actress, recalling
that there was "so much pressure" for her to take her clothes off.
She was lucky enough to have her agent in her corner when the subject of nudity came
up on set.
She explained,
"My agent sent a car and a plane ticket [to the film set] and he said, 'If anybody makes
you do anything that you're not comfortable doing, you don't.'
Given what's happening now and the stories told from that particular period, I know how
lucky I am that there was someone, in this case, a man, who stepped in."
Parker also asserted that her opinion on appearing nude only extends as far as herself, as she
also said,
"It's not a value thing, or like I'm judging anyone else.
I just never dug it."
When it came time to start filming the finale to the Fifty Shades trilogy, Fifty Shades
Freed, there was a lot of talk regarding whether or not audiences would see all of actor Jamie
Dornan.
Co-star Dakota Johnson joked in 2016 about starting a campaign for him to disrobe on
an episode of Watch What Happens Live...
"Everybody wants to see the D."
"Yeah, show us the D!"
...and there were rumors that Dornan had been offered $1.5 million to bare it all for the
final film.
He didn't, exactly.
He wore what's called a modesty pouch instead, and he told Elle that those rumors were just
that.
He joked:
"It was $30 million to show one testicle.
No, that whole thing with offering more money to go nude?
That didn't happen."
For Dornan, the movie wouldn't have been improved by it.
He told Elle:
"I just thought, we don't need to be flashing the rest if it's not essential to the story.
We're not making porn as much as people think we are."
These days, Jessica Alba might be better known for her natural baby and beauty company, The
Honest Company, than for her acting career, which started when she was just a kid with
1994's Camp Nowhere.
Since then, she's starred in countless films and has often played the attractive love interest.
For a number of those roles, her wardrobe has been rather limited, but she's never gone
fully nude, and the reason for that has to do with her family.
As she told Glamour in 2014,
"I don't want my grandparents to see my boobs.
That's it.
It would be weird at Christmas."
Alba also touched on the possibility of doing nudity for a particular role or storyline
that could be bettered by it, while also taking a lighthearted jab at her own filmography.
As she put it,
"I mean, really, if you look at the movies I have done, getting naked would never 'elevate'
the picture."
Christina Hendricks worked as a model for years during her twenties before she gained
mainstream fame as the strong-willed Joan Holloway on AMC's Mad Men in 2007.
Her character was known for her form-fitting attire, leading to Hendricks becoming something
of a modern bombshell.
The actress told BlackBook in 2012,
"[Joan] was very openly saying, 'I have sex, and I don't care if you judge me.
I'm not going to apologize for who I am.'
Those qualities resonated with people, and have given me confidence."
But for as much sex appeal as Hendricks oozes on TV and in movies, you won't be seeing her
completely nude on screen anytime soon, and the reason why might surprise you.
While she's comfortable in the privacy of her own bedroom, she isn't so much that way
outside of it.
As she explained to BlackBook,
"I'm a very comfortable naked person.
Not in front of other people, but at home and in front of my husband, I feel good not
wearing clothes."
Julia Roberts rose to fame when she played a worker with a heart of gold in 1990's Pretty
Woman.
While playing a literal worker might be a call for nudity if ever there was one, Roberts
never once appeared without her clothes in the film.
She's also remained firm throughout her entire career about her personal no-nudity stance.
According to her, nudity isn't really a part of acting, at least not for her.
She told OK!
Magazine in 2007,
"I wouldn't do nudity in a film.
To act with my clothes on is a performance.
To act with my clothes off is a documentary."
In 2009, Roberts starred in the thriller Duplicity, whose original script called for a raunchy
sex scene, but she insisted that it be toned down.
By that point in her life, she was married with kids, a life change that seemed to further
cement her position.
At the film's premiere, she said,
"You know it's not really what I do, so if you are going to ask me to do it, you have
to expect it to be toned down.
You know, as a mom of three, I feel like that."
"They're called boobs, Ed."
Between 2010 and 2017, Ashley Benson starred on the teen soap drama Pretty Little Liars.
In 2012, she shed her good girl image by appearing in the controversial indie Spring Breakers.
The film features a group of college girls who spend most of the running time wearing
little more than bikinis, but for Benson, that's as far as it was ever going to go.
In a 2014 interview with Cosmopolitan, the actress said that she isn't afraid to walk
away when she's pushed to do something she doesn't want to.
As she explained,
"I make it clear that I have a line.
Everyone tries to push you, and it's easy to get talked into doing those things.
I'll just walk off-set: 'If that's the way it's going to be, then you can do it without
me.'"
For Benson, nudity in a film should never be done gratuitously, and she also believes
that girls look better in lingerie or a tee shirt while leaving the rest up to the imagination.
Samuel L. Jackson has been a working actor in Hollywood since 1973.
He has nearly 200 credits to his name.
And he has never once appeared fully nude on camera.
When he stopped by The Howard Stern Show in 2016, he was asked about going full monty.
He recalled doing two nude scenes but also noted that he had never gone full-frontal.
It turns out that the reason for Jackson's modesty has to do with a certain lack of self-confidence.
"I don't know if it's...yeah."
"Right."
"Yeah."
"Smart.
I would do the same thing."
"I don't know if it's formidable enough to, you know."
Jackson's unwillingness to do nudity might also have something to do with wanting to
avoid the negative audience reaction that actors who have bared all have had to deal
with.
"That's what you don't want."
Over the course of its six-season run, the HBO sitcom Girls featured plenty of nudity
from its stars.
But Allison Williams, who played Marnie Michaels, refused to bare all even before the series
began shooting.
In a 2017 interview on Popcorn with Peter Travers, Williams said there was only so much
she was willing to give to her character.
"I wanted to give Marnie almost all of myself.
But I...there were things that felt like they should be mine."
Williams' refusal to sign the network's nudity waiver was met with some surprise.
She said that her agents just figured she would "get swept up in the vibe of the show"
and change her mind eventually, but she never did.
She also expressed that she didn't want to burden her potential future children with
another way to be made fun of.
Because she stuck to her guns, now those future kids won't have to worry about classmates
showing up to school with Google images of their naked mom.
Megan Fox has never been shy when it comes to showing her body on camera.
In her breakout role in 2007's Transformers, she generally wore as little clothing as possible
without quite appearing nude, and that's the way she prefers it.
She told the Mirror in 2016 that she didn't want her sons to ever have to see her without
clothes on, stating,
"There are just certain things boys should never see their mothers do."
Fox's no-nudity clause is so firm, in fact, that she's admitted to walking away from roles
because of it.
She revealed,
"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."
Fox added that she once turned down an HBO project because of its graphic sex scenes.
During the late '90s and early 2000s, Sarah Michelle Gellar was the epitome of female
badassery, playing the title role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In 1999's Cruel Intentions, she did a 180 by taking on the role of the manipulative
Kathryn, who played men like it was her actual job.
While her character lived and breathed seduction, she did it all without ever actually removing
her clothing.
It turns out that Gellar won't even go topless, regardless of how big the paychecks would
be.
In 2005, the New York Post reported that she had been offered some high-paying roles but
turned them down because she would've had to take her top off.
According to a rep for the actress,
"Sarah doesn't do nudity, period.
It has never been her thing."
"You think maybe you could get me some clothing?"
"Yes I can.
Just don't go anywhere."
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