Emma Thompson opened up on what it was like stripping down for her latest film.
The actress, who was 62 at the time, bared all in a scene in her film, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. She discussed the experience during the film's virtual Sundance Film Festival premiere.
Rehearsing for a nude scene can be tense, but Emma was comforted by the fact that costar Daryl McCormack and director Sophie Hyde also got naked for the rehearsal.
"Sophie, 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," Emma said in the Cinema Café discussion.
"It's very challenging to be nude at 62," Emma said. She describes a scene where her character checks out her own body.
"She stands in front of a mirror alone and she drops her robe."
Emma portrays Nancy Stokes in the film. The widowed schoolteacher decides to hire a male escort in pursuit of her first orgasm. The role had Emma considering how women's bodies have been perceived throughout her career.
"Nothing has changed in the dreadful demands made upon women in the real-world world but also in acting," Emma said.
"This thing of having to be thin is still the same as it ever was, and actually in some ways I think it's worse now."
Emma said the industry considers it jarring for a woman of her age to pose nude because we aren't used to seeing unretouched bodies.
"I don't think I could've done it before the age that I am," she said.
"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."
Emma said that the experience, however unusual, made for a bonding experience that made the whole process much more comfortable.
"That was very important that we could hold onto each other and laugh," Emma said.
"Actually, that's what we've done the entire time: held onto each other, slid about, and laugh. That walk kind of was emblematic of the whole journey."
