There once was a stigma in Hollywood that actresses who did nude scenes wouldn’t be taken seriously or were seriously desperate for movie roles. However, the tide has surely turned over the past decade or so, with some of the best A-list actresses of our time starring in nude scenes in all sorts of different movies, from the artistic to the funny and even the shocking. This is a list of the best brave actresses of the past decade who are making nude scenes something more acceptable in movies and proving that the choice to do nude scenes isn’t a career-ending one:
Angelina Jolie – She’s now known as one of the most popular actresses of our time, if not one of the best, but before she was adopting kids from around the world, dating Brad Pitt, and becoming one of the best all-around people on the planet, Angelina Jolie was starring in more nude scenes than almost any of the other women on this list. From ‘Original Sin’ with Antonio Banderas to ‘Taking Lives’ and a few other quick nude scenes in other movies (including a CGI one in ‘Beowulf’), Angelina Jolie was ensuring that her past body of work (despite being pretty horrible movies) would remain popular long after she became a megastar in search of Best Actress Oscar gold (She’s already gotten a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, for a movie that she did no nude scenes in). Now that she’s a mother, Angelina Jolie likely won’t be doing any more nude scenes, but she’s still one of sexiest actresses of the decade that audiences won’t likely tire of watching anytime soon.
Halle Berry – At the beginning of the decade, Halle Berry seemed like one of those actresses that would never do nude scenes (when you’re Halle Berry, you don’t have to), but she surprised us all with one of the most talked-about nude scenes ever in ‘Swordfish’. However, her very emotional and powerful nude scenes from another movie of that same year, ‘Monster’s Ball’, are what convinced us that she is a seriously good serious actress. Her performance earned her the honor of becoming the first black woman to ever win the Best Actress Oscar, setting the stage for many more Oscar-winning actresses of the decade when it comes to doing nude scenes in movies.
Keira Knightley – I was very surprised to learn that Keira Knightley had done nude scenes in a movie called ‘The Hole’ at the beginning of this year, considering that she went on to star in the family-friendly ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies. However, she’s done a surprising amount of nude scenes this past decade in little-referenced films like ‘The Jacket’, ‘Domino’ and ‘Silk’. She’s definitely one of the most beautiful actresses of the past decade, and as she continues to improve and get more serious roles, I’m sure she’ll score Oscar gold sometime soon (nudes scenes or none).
Charlize Theron – She had to ugly herself up for her Oscar-winning role, but before that Charlize Theron already had a legion of male fans thanks to nude scenes in movies like ‘Reindeer Games’ and ‘The Yards’. While she hasn’t been able to duplicate her ‘Monster’ success this past decade, she has gone back to doing artistically-shot nude scenes in the 2004 movie ‘Head in the Clouds’. But as much as men love her tendency to show a lot of skin, Charlize Theron is one of the actresses of this past decade that needs to focus on choosing better film roles and duplicating her Oscar-winning performance (maybe getting all uglied-up like that gave her some sort of complex, making her only choose sexier move roles).
Salma Hayek – Salma Hayek is definitely one of the sexiest actresses of the past decade, as well as one of the most talented. She’s also not afraid of doing nude scenes, donning her birthday suit for movies like ‘Ask the Dusk’ and ‘Frida’, a serious role that got her nominated for an Academy Award. She’s one of my favorite actresses of the decade, and I still think she deserved that gold little man to set on her mantle for donning that unibrow!
Jennifer Connelly – Jennifer Connelly is definitely one of the most beautiful actresses of the past decade with her gorgeous green eyes, perfect skin, and dark, luscious hair, but she starred in a movie featuring one of the most-talked about dark and somewhat disturbing sex scenes in American mainstream cinema, ‘Requiem for a Dream. Her nude scenes in the movie were nothing compared to an unforgettable sequence in a different part of the movie starring a body double, but guys love her for starring in this bizarre movie nevertheless.
Katie Holmes – And now for one of the most surprising actresses on this list. A few years before we knew her as Tom Cruise’s wife, Katie Holmes was trying to shed her ‘Dawson’s Creek’ image by starring in ‘The Gift’, a little-known movie from the beginning of the decade that she had a few quick nude scenes in. Unfortunately, Katie Holmes is one of the actresses here that could have done a lot better with her career choices (and I’m not even going to go into her personal life).
Kate Winslet – And now for one of the least surprising actresses on this list. I guess when it comes to Kate Winslet, it may be more surprising to see a list of movies she hasn’t done nude scenes in. Her first nude scenes of the decade were in the extremely disturbing and perverse ‘Quills’, and her second two movies with nude scenes were the touching ‘Iris’ and the adulterous tale ‘Little Children. However, it is ‘The Reader’, her most controversial role due to the fact that she’s playing a woman in a relationship with an underage boy, that finally earned her Oscar gold. She’s one of the best and most beautiful actresses of our time, as well as one of the most well-known for doing nude scenes.
Penelope Cruz – The other half of the sexy Latina duo of best friend actresses on this list is also not afraid of doing nude scenes. She was purportedly dating costar Tom Cruise after doing nude scenes with him in ‘Vanilla Sky’, but she really shows just how brave she is with her body in the movie ‘Elegy’. However, while it’s great that she has no problem with nude scenes, I prefer her more in other movies she starred in from the past decade like ‘Volver’, ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ (which she won an Oscar for), and ‘Broken Embraces’, and I’m really looking forward to seeing her sing in the musical ‘Nine’. (I guess nude scenes just don’t work well for all actresses when it comes to making a movie role better.)
Rachel McAdams – She’s become one of the best loved actresses of the past decade thanks to her unforgettable role in ‘The Notebook’, but before that she starred in a much lesser-known movie entitled ‘My Name is Tanino’, in which she had a few nude scenes. She’s another of the many up-and-coming actresses on this list that I think has a shot at Oscar gold, whether or not she decides nude scenes have a place in her future career.
Natalie Portman – As one of the many actresses in Hollywood that seemed to be against doing nude scenes, much ado was made about her role in ‘Hotel Chevalier’. However, there’s bound to be a lot more talk about one of the next movies Natalie Portman has in the works, a movie called ‘Black Swan‘ which will require her to shoot lesbian scenes with Mila Kunis. Sounds interesting and all, but as one of the best up-and-coming actresses of the past decade, I hope Natalie Portman finds her Oscar-worthy role soon. She was so close with ‘Closer’, but maybe she’ll finally show us how talented she really is in this year’s ‘Brothers’.
Anne Hathaway – This star of ‘The Princess Diaries’ tried to break out of her squeaky-clean image with teen drama ‘Havoc’, a movie in which she had quite a few gratuitous nude scenes. For awhile it looked like one of the actresses of the past decade with one of the most winsome smiles you’ll ever see might just end up starring in sub-par movies all her life, then the critically-acclaimed ‘Rachel Getting Married’ came along. So it seems Anne Hathaway is just one of those actresses who does her best work with her clothing on, and I’m really looking forward to seeing her White Queen costumes in next year’s ‘Alice in Wonderland.
Jennifer Aniston – Jennifer Aniston created quite a stir with nothing more than extremely brief nude scenes in ‘The Break-Up’ and ‘The Good Girl’ this past decade, however, it is a leaked still from the movie ‘The Break-Up’ that actually shows more of Jennifer Aniston than she wants you to see. So will Jennifer Aniston ever do a full-fledged nude scene? When you’re as loved as much as she is with her clothes on, why bother?
Michelle Williams – And here’s another ‘Dawson’s Creek’ alum that tried to take her career in a different direction by doing nude scenes in the likes of ‘If These Walls Could Talk 2’, ‘The Hawk is Dying’, ‘Incendiary’, and alongside fiancé-to-be Heath Ledger in ‘Brokeback Mountain’. She’s one of the most talented actresses on this list, but one of the most underrated. She’s got one Oscar nomination under her belt, but perhaps she’ll get a well-deserved Oscar for daughter Matilda to set alongside her daddy’s for a very interesting upcoming movie role that she may take on: she’s bee given the great honor of being asked to portray Marilyn Monroe. (Sorry, Megan Fox and Scarlett Johansson!)
So it’s definitely been a surprising decade when it comes to A-list actresses that star in nude scenes, so those that are fans of censorship, beware: this could be a sign that nudity is becoming more acceptable in our society, a la Great Britain or France. But whether this is the case or not, I applaud the best actresses of decade proving that nude scenes can be more than just gratuitous and that they don’t spell the end of a career for an actress trying to do the best she can in the very difficult world of Hollywood.
SOURCES:
www.imdb.com
www.filmsite.org
http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/12/04/michelle_williams_to_play_marilyn_monroe
