[Hwu]

Hey everyone. Here's a topic I don't think I've ever seen explored on here: Nudity from actresses on film sets! Having been in film school about a decade ago, I have a few stories in this genre (and, if you expand the definition from strictly nudity to lingerie, general sexiness, etc., a lot more). I'll start with my favorite.

I believe this was sophomore year. I had been asked to hold the boom mic on a student film (nothing exceptional about that for a college film student; you will do every job under the sun on at least a hundred short student films throughout your four years). One-day, 8-or-so-hour shoot for a 15-or-so page script. I read through the script on set that morning, it was your typical generic ripped-from-life college drama short about a guy going to the dorm of his female friend who he secretly has a crush on before they go to a party, confesses his feelings to her, yada yada, the usual shit probably ripped from the writer/director's life. Nothing special or unique about it (but the director was a classmate/acquaintance, so of course I didn't say so).

I briefly met the actress playing the female lead, very pretty, of course, as most all 19-year-old student actresses tended to be. Just a touch curvy, pale, dark haired. The director and actors rehearsed while the camera people and sound people (including me) set up. Got everything ready and filmed the beginning of the script, where the guy showed up at the door and she let him in, me holding the mic. So far so good.

Here's where it got interesting. The second page of the script had the girl go into her dorm bedroom while the guy stood in the common area, her door still cracked open, and change her shirt into her party shirt with her back faced to the door, while they exchanged dialogue the whole time. The director said he kind of wanted it from the guy's general POV in a single minute-long shot, with the camera over his shoulder at first then looking right at him as he turned to it to give her privacy, the doorway and the girl farther away in back from frame.

Since there was no way to hold the boom mic over both at once without being in frame, I hooked up a body mic to the actor to get his dialogue (since he was going to be stationary) and went in the bedroom to hold the boom mic for the girl (since she was going to be moving around during the shot). You could only see just a little slice of inside the door from the camera's shot (like I said, the door was only really cracked open to give the protagonist/viewer a glimpse of her back as she changed, so you couldn't see me in the room at all). It was only me and the actress alone in the room; the director, cameraman, lighting people, script supervisor, sound pack guy, makeup/hair/costumer, and co-star were all outside in the dorm common area.

She went back outside for starting position. Scene is set, director calls action. She walked in the room where I'm standing with the boom mic, her and the male actor start doing their dialogue to each other while she gets a top from a drawer, then, standing on her mark where the camera can see her, back towards the door and front towards me, pulls her shirt off.

Now, an important note: Up until this exact moment, I had no idea I was going to see breasts this morning. I knew she had a changing scene in the script, but I assumed that she would have her bra on, and even if not, I assumed that I wouldn't actually be in the room right in front of/a little to the side of her. But I was, right there. Also worth noting: her changing shirts mark was no more than five feet from where I was standing. I was right beside her.

But off the shirt came and she was standing there completely topless in her jeans in front of me, soft breasts tipped with dark, round nipples. My eyes might have bugged or my mouth gapped open, I don't know. Thankfully, no one outside could see me, and her eyes stayed forwards, in character, completely professional, continuing to deliver her dialogue without missing a beat as she pulled on the other top. In truth, her breasts were probably out for all of 10 seconds, but time slowed and it felt like minutes.

"Cut, check the gate, ready to go again!" the director says. The actress drops character, and gets ready to do a second take. Of course, if you'll recall, this means getting back into her original shirt! She walks over to the dresser (out of view of everyone outside; only I could see), takes off her party top, breasts out again, and opens the drawer to put it in. She turns to me and laughs a little and says "Sorry about my boobs flopping everywhere." I laugh and say something like "No worries, we're all professionals." She is topless through this conversation and I'm trying my goddamn hardest to maintain eye contact and not look down.

"Hand me that?" She points at her original shirt on the ground. "Sure." I pick it up and give it to her. For a surreal quarter of a second my hand is touching the hand of a pretty topless actress, us all of 15 feet away from a dozen of my peers through an open door. While she pulls it on (when her eyes were covered by the shirt going over her head I of course took the opportunity to sn*tch another look at her nipples before they, too, were covered) she tells me that the director said the shot would be better and more provocative for the protagonist/audience with no bra in the shot of her back. I agree that it's a good idea. Then she's out the door to start the shot again!

We did three more takes, each proceeding exactly the same way: Her through the door, doing dialogue, getting a shirt from the dresser, taking her first shirt off, softs breasts out away from the camera and towards me, other shirt on, me holding the boom mic above her the whole time, cut, then taking the second shirt off and putting the first back on again. I don't think we said anything to each other during the next two shots or between, but after the fourth one when the director said let's move on, she made small talk with me about classes and stuff. Sadly, there was no changing back into the original shirt (she would wear the second shirt for the rest of the film), but it was still surreal to make small talk with this pretty actress who had been standing topless in jeans five feet from me literally a minute ago.

Then we moved on and spent the next 6-7 hours filming the rest of the script, during which she sadly remained fully clothed.

All in all I probably one saw her breasts for less than two minutes total, but two things make this story one of my favorites: One, the student actress in question is still to this day a presumably struggling but still working actress. I will decline to name her for reasons of privacy, but looking her up on IMDb now I see that her career apparently peaked as a patient-of-the-week on Grey's Anatomy, though she also guest starred in small roles in single episodes of a few other shows a lot of you probably know, including a popular network sitcom. So I can kind of say I've seen a (very very very minor) celebrity naked in person!

Two, the nudity was completely for her and me alone - she has never gone nude on TV or in a movie, and no one else on set could see her breasts, not the director, not the cameraman, not her co-star, just me. This makes it a little special, I think!