Andie MacDowell wishes she’d stripped off in movies sooner.
The 61-year-old actress ditched her clothes completely for the first time ever for 2017’s ‘Love After Love’, when she was 60, and while she is "proud" of still taking "chances" at this time in her career, she regrets not filming a nude scene in her 20s to show her children that they should never "feel any shame about their bodies".
Andie – who has Justin, 33, Rainey, 29, and 24-year-old Sarah with ex-husband Paul Qualley – told Britain’s i newspaper: "I’m proud of myself. It shows that I’m still evolving and ready to take chances. I probably should have taken [it all] off in my twenties.
"I grew up in a conservative family and, in my generation, most actresses hired body doubles for those scenes. But I had an awakening as to what the human body is, and I didn’t want my kids, in their acting, to feel any shame about their bodies."
The ‘Green Card’ star previously admitted she was thankful to the film’s director, Russell Harbaugh, who was so reassuring and put her at ease with the intimate scene.
She explained: "I took my clothes off in front of him and said, ‘What do you think?’ He kept saying, ‘You are so beautiful, oh that’s beautiful, that’s beautiful.’ It made me calm. Although there is nudity throughout the whole film, it’s done in such an artistic way that it makes the story that much richer because you just feel like you are watching these people’s lives."
And Andie insisted there was nothing objectifying about the movie as it just portrayed "real" life.
She said: "I think women have quite often been used in movies as an object for men. Nudity in this film feels human and similar in the way male and female bodies are depicted. The forms and the shapes and how we were laying on the bed. It’s shown as being real and a part of life."
In the movie, Andie plays Chris O’Dowd’s character’s mother. But she doesn’t feel offended being asked to portray someone significantly older than herself.
She said: "I am old enough to be his mother! And I just played another character recently, where I tried to look even older. I don’t have a problem with looking older. I think I can play 10 years older and 10 years younger. I think that happens all the time in real life too, depending on how you’re feeling. I think you age 10 years when you’re sad."
Andie MacDowell wishes she’d done nude scenes sooner
