Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 7:04AM Commentary: Jessica Alba Doesn't Like to be Nude
A friend of mine recently said that hot women are probably terrible in bed. When I asked her why, she responded, "because they are more prude and probably don't feel like they need to do anything they don't want to to get what they want." It's an interesting theory and does seem to make sense on some level.
In an interview with Metro, Jessica Alba reveals she is very uncomfortable being nude and has on multiple occasions asked directors to cut out parts of the script and add CGI to make her appear naked. Now, nudity in films is pretty controversial. Of course some actors and actresses feel that nudity is a beautiful thing and it's the ultimate sign of the person being comfortable under their own skin. Some find it degrading and sexist and if that is what's required to get a role, it's a form of prostitution.
I respect both points completely. However, what if the actor or actress refuses to be naked but is completely okay with a CGI rendering of her naked? What if she changes the script to take out the sex scenes. That is exactly what happened with Machete. In the nude shower scene, she wasn't actually nude and in the script she had the sex scenes removed. Says Alba, "I read the script for Machete but there was a lot of sex stuff for my character and I’m really conservative. I’d say to him: ‘You know the scenes where this is happening? I just feel really uncomfortable doing that."
Now I think Jessica Alba is one of the hottest actresses in the world today and I'm sure many of you would agree. But it's clear that she isn't against nudity as she's completely okay with CGI renderings of nudity, she just doesn't want to be nude. Where does this put her? Is she just being prude because she can afford to be or is she keeping up with her morals of conservatism? To my friend's point, maybe if you're extremely hot, you don't have to get nude and have the power to change the script while still getting the role...
Personally, I'd always like to see a movie the way it was written and wonder what Machete would have been like without Alba.
Reader Comments (14)
Alba has been whining a lot in the media of late. I just read an article that said she had a nervous breakdown on the set of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and almost quit acting for good. My suspicion is that she (like Jessica Biel) is starting to lose roles to other more talented starlets and is making these kinds of statements to remain relevant for a few seconds longer...
14:57 Jessie...Whatever happened to that hot chick from Machete?
So what, you get to read the actual pre final cut, shooting scripts before you see a movie and you want to see exactly that script realized on the screen? Movies are really made in the editing process. Filming is just the process of collecting coverage and the coverage they collect is based on that script. In the end it's all about how the scenes and shots are put together that makes the movie.
Actors are sometimes a bit like strippers, in that there's an exhibitionistic tendency they have to have. Some have a greater trait of this than others. When you're shooting a movie, you're shooting and doing EVERYTHING that script says for 12-18 hours a day. Some actors just know that when they read a script some things are going beyond a level that they want to be challenged - not just memory of lines or emotion, but their physical bodies. This doesn't go for just nudity but for gaining or losing weight for a role, or doing things to your face like what Lon Chaney did. The director - or studio - either wants that "star" so bad, that they'll accommodate them, or they realize creatively the movie needs another level of performance to really be the kind of movie it needs to be - either to get an audience, or get accolades - and then maybe get an audience.
Ultimately, nudity is a talent like anything else. There are strippers who just take their clothes off and they're off the stage - and maybe they're better at serving drinks. And then there are those that really know how to work the crowd. They're just totally unfettered, uninhibited PERFORMERS. Some just have it, some don't. You just have to appreciate the talent they have and where that talent best serves - when the light goes up - the audience.
She's not a hot woman. She's a little princess.
This dating site that sends me junk email had a poll here this past week about who they'd like most to have a celebrity fantasy date with and Alba was at the top, Megan Fox was second.
In contrast - and defense of Alba - she's in a lot more sexual situations in the lttle-seen, smaller-audience, indy/art circuit movie "The Killer Inside Me" than the hot summer, popcorn movie "Machete", adding to the argument that it's all about the material. 'Course there's no all-out complete nudity in that movie, but you can't quite call her a prude after it either - and maybe that's even why she did it.
She showed enough skin in The Killer Inside of Me for me. I don't really watch any of the other movies, so no loss there.
I don't believe she is being a prude. She is just doing what she wants and what she is comfortable with. Obvisiously she has no problem with nudity since she did ask for CGI to replace her body. I'm not sure why she does not want to be naked in front of a camera, but she has her reasons and I'll respect that.
Plus in the film industry, there has been body doubles to replace a actress's nude scene. So she is not the first to choose to not be nude in a movie, and she most likely won't be the last.
The interesting thing now in this digital era is how flawlessly an actor who doesn't do nude scenes - can be in a nude scene. So this line between their "performance" as an artist and their reputation as a celebrity is challenged. And if they can be composited in a nude scene in such a way that it looks like they were actually there and did it, what else of their "performance" can also be created by other means. So is their stature in movies because of their creative talent and ability, or because of their manufactured celebrity appeal.
In a way, one way to control this - at least right now - is for them not to do nude scenes or even have such scenes in the movie at all. Because if such a scene isn't there to be faked, then you know everything else HAS to be real as well. Of course eventually, they'll be able to do a whole performance. I'm curious to see where things go from Jeff Bridges "performance" in the upcoming "Tron: Legacy". And since, as the addage goes, once you've got your movie cast you have forty percent of it made - what IS a movie?
And you thought this was just all about T an' A shots.