Every actor feels completely differently about nudity. Some are happy to disrobe for any project, some have said that they will never do it, and others feel that the judgement is to be made on a case-by-case judgement. Of course, there are arguments to be made from all angles of the discussion and have been - but actress Kristen Stewart has a pretty clear stance on why she's completely okay with appearing nude in movies: she believes that a lot of people are just too "weird" about it, and that she ultimately doesn't think it is that big of a deal.
With Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women opening in theaters later this month, W Magazine recently sat down for an extensive interview with Kristen Stewart, and one of the subjects broached was her thoughts on doing nude scenes - specifically one in the director Olivier Assayas' upcoming movie Personal Shopper. Discussing the scene, Stewart said that part of her willingness to take off her clothes was just the experience of working with Assayas ("[T]here was no acknowledgment on his part. They're very fucking French. We are weirder about shit like that"), but she also went on to note her personal feelings on the matter in general. The actor explained,
I still want women's bodies and the way they want to reveal them, it should be a precious thing, I don't want to de-sexualize it in some way. But at the same time, I'm not weird about it. I'm pretty open. I think people are a little too fucking weird about it, to be honest, but that's kind of why I was like, 'I'll do it.'
Of course, context was important as well, as Kristen Stewart also goes into length explaining why the nude scene in Personal Shopper was important both for the character and the role. Describing her character Maureen, Stewart said that shame and guilt was a big part of the role, and that there is a particular impact that comes with seeing her "stripped and bare, totally bare." Said Stewart,
There's a strength in it. There's an aspect of sexuality in the movie that's so lonely and that is just one of the saddest things. She's not with anyone. Like the sex scene? Totally alone. She's interacting with a fake person on a phone. And there's just something so fucking raw about it, and without that stuff it would be a different thing.
It's worth nothing that Kristen Stewart's nude scene in Personal Shopper isn't the first that she's done, having previously performed in multiple sex scenes in Walter Salles' On The Road, and it sounds like it won't be the last - provided that she is presented with a project that uses the sexuality (or possible lack thereof) in a constructive way.
Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women, which co-stars Michelle Williams, Laura Dern, and Jared Harris, will be in theaters on October 14th, while Olivier Assayas' Personal Shopper will be released March 10, 2017.
