Nudity on screen is always a controversial topic. Sometimes an intimate or revealing moment is valuable to the story being told, but, understandably, not all actresses are comfortable being naked on screen, simply refusing to do so. Sydney Sweeny has done her share of nude scenes and doesn’t seem to have a problem with them in general, but only when she thinks they make sense for the character.
In Sweeney’s new movie Immaculate she plays a nun who travels to a convent in Italy where things are not as they appear. The movie’s MPAA rating is R, in part because the film does contain nudity, but not from Sweeney herself. Her character is truly devout, an innocent for whom the events of the film are meant to be disturbing. A brief look at the Immaculate trailer makes that clear, and so the actress tells the L.A. Times that it simply didn’t make sense for her character to be naked at any point. She said…
It didn’t serve the character. It’s always whether it serves the character or not. I’m living someone else’s life. So if it serves to the development or the emotional state of a character, then it makes sense. But she was a nun. It didn’t make sense.
Immaculate is directed by Michael Mohan, who Sydney Sweeney has worked with before, and she has been naked in his projects before. Mohan’s last film with Sweeney, The Voyeurs, did involve her naked on screen, so he clearly doesn't have an issue with it. But the director says he wasn’t looking to build a reputation as the guy who gets Sydney Sweeney naked on screen, which admittedly would be a strange reputation to end up with. Although there is at least one scene in the new film that could have gone that far. Mohan explained…
Well, I don’t want to be known as the guy who makes movies where Sydney gets naked. I don’t want that reputation. However, I will say, Syd, when we decided to stage the scene with you and Benedetta in a bathhouse, we knew that would have a sensual feeling to it.
While a scene in a bathhouse could have theoretically justified Sydney Sweeney’s nudity, the feeling was that even in that circumstance, the character wouldn’t get completely naked. And as such, she didn’t. For this nun, there were other ways to show her vulnerability that didn’t require fully disrobing. Sweeney explained…
And it’s just like if she was in the bathhouse, she would just be wearing her overdress, her bathing dress, and no bra. And so it’s truthfully just whatever the character would do. I never think about it. I mean, the character wouldn’t wear a bra in most of the stuff, so I didn’t wear a bra. It just depends on the character. I truly just look at everything like that.
So for Sydney Sweeney, it’s clear that nudity is not a problem, as long as it makes sense for the character she’s playing. For director Michael Mohan, I guess that means he’ll need to choose his future projects with the actress carefully if he wants to avoid getting a reputation. You can see Sweeney not get naked on Immaculate's release date of March 25.
