The 2026 movie schedule is packed with bold, unusual releases, but only one of them comes with an Alexander Skarsgård nude scene, and that happens to be one of the upcoming A24 movies Pillion. Unfortunately (or maybe mercifully, depending on your perspective), Skarsgård’s full nude moment, prosthetic and all, was, yes, cut down. Pun fully intended. Here’s why the filmmakers decided to go with less length and more tension.
According to reporting from Entertainment Weekly, the trimmed moment involved a longer close-up shot during an early alleyway scene between Skarsgård’s biker character, Ray, and Harry Melling’s character, Colin. While the scene remains explicit in the final cut, the cast and filmmaker confirmed the original version lingered longer than what audiences now see. Melling revealed to the outlet:
There was one shot that went, and that was not because Harry Lighton got nervous. It was purely a narrative, storytelling moment. In the alleyway scene, there was a close-up on Ray's penis as he sort of zipped down, and I think when they started to preview to audiences, they realized that this was a moment where the audience would react, and the tension would be released with laughter or what have you.
According to Harry Melling, long removed from his days playing Dudley in the Harry Potter films, the issue wasn’t audience shock. The problem was tone. The longer shot tended to break the tension, pulling viewers out of the moment with nervous laughter instead of keeping them locked into the scene’s intensity. As he put it later, the goal was to stay with Colin in that heightened, adrenaline-fueled headspace, which is why the moment ultimately didn’t make the final cut. He added:
And actually, you want to still be with Colin, you want to still be in the adrenalized moment of him about to do this thing. So I think that's why that one moment got taken out of the movie.
Pillion follows a BDSM relationship dynamic and is intentionally direct about sex and vulnerability. That balance made editing especially important, particularly for first-time feature director Harry Lighton, who was tasked with maintaining honesty without tipping into shock-value territory.
Skarsgård, looking as ripped as he was in the acclaimed historical drama The Northman, later echoed that sentiment, praising Lighton’s instincts in the edit room and clarifying that the goal was never to tone the film down, but to keep it grounded in character and story. The veteran True Blood actor added:
I think Harry did a terrific job in the edit room…I think he calibrated it beautifully, where it is graphic, but it never felt gratuitous or there to shock, which I would've found annoying. It wasn't like, We're not prudish, look at this close-up of a d-ck for five seconds.
The Murderbot star has also confirmed he used a prosthetic for the scene, something that has become standard practice in many modern productions that include explicit nudity. For Skarsgård, though, the bigger issue was always whether the moment felt honest rather than performative.
The broader takeaway reflects a shift in how filmmakers approach sex on screen. Modern audiences often respond well to explicit material when it feels emotionally grounded, but can quickly disengage when scenes appear designed purely to provoke reaction. Skarsgård himself has said he finds it frustrating when films either shy away from intimacy entirely or linger on it simply to shock viewers.
For Pillion, the final edit represents a middle ground. The film still maintains its bold tone and sexual honesty, but trims moments that risk pulling viewers out of the characters' emotional perspective. In this case, less screen time for one shot meant more sustained tension for the scene as a whole.
Pillion is now playing in theaters, so check your local listings for showtimes. You can also take a look at other upcoming LGBTQ+ movies headed to theaters soon.
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