Why Keira Knightley Isn’t Down With Nude Scenes Anymore

keira knightley naked under sheets in the aftermath

Keira Knightley’s new movie The Aftermath came out earlier this year. It’s notable for being a period drama that Knightley took that’s not set in the corset era, but also because it has nude scenes, scenes Knightley notably used a body double for. While Knightley has revealed she was excited about using a body double, she’s not particularly excited about getting naked on the big screen these days. She said:

I have been comfortable earlier with more nudity than I am now. I have had a kid, I am in my 30s, I am very happy with my body, but I don’t feel I need to get it out that much anymore.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, the actress noted that she’s a mom now. Her body has changed thanks to bearing a child and she’s simply not as excited about foisting her naked body on the entire moviegoing audience anymore.

It’s not that she’s seemingly opposed to nudity or topless scenes like some actress are. She notably has filmed a slew of sex scenes during her career and some of them have bared more than others. While filming The Edge of Love she opted to go topless, saying at the time she doesn’t love bras in sex scenes. That's not the only time she's done a scene of that ilk either, although she's previously said she's never revealed her bottom half.

This time around, though, she was all about the body double, also telling Good Morning America that she had the best time picking out a woman to play her body in The Aftermath.

Well they said, ‘Look we want to do a nude scene.’ And I said, ‘Yes, that’s a very good idea.’ They said, ‘Are you comfortable with that?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m really comfortable as long as I don’t have to do it.’ They said, ‘OK great, you can choose your own body double.’ It was absolutely brilliant.

From the looks and sounds of things, we might not be seeing the Pirates of the Caribbean actress undress on the big screen in the future either, since she seems to be having a lot of fun with the finding a body double stuff.

For more on nudity in R-rated films, take a look at our full history.

Interestingly, it’s not like Keira Knightley just recently hired her first body double. She also used one in the 2007 film Atonement for her feet and she used a body double for her butt in the flick Domino.

So, she’s sort of waffled back and forth between what she’s willing to throw up on the big screen and what she’s less jazzed about. In this case, the postwar film has a lot of moments between the sheets, but it’s not Keira Knightley you’re looking at. When she is shown onscreen in the early previews for the movie, she’s covered up by sheets or wearing lacy bits.

The Aftermath is still out in limited release.

Jessica Rawden
Managing Editor

Jessica Rawden is Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. She’s been kicking out news stories since 2007 and joined the full-time staff in 2014. She oversees news content, hiring and training for the site, and her areas of expertise include theme parks, rom-coms, Hallmark (particularly Christmas movie season), reality TV, celebrity interviews and primetime. She loves a good animated movie. Jessica has a Masters in Library Science degree from Indiana University, and used to be found behind a reference desk most definitely not shushing people. She now uses those skills in researching and tracking down information in very different ways.