Emma Thompson: ‘I spent two delightful days nude with Jeff Goldblum’
Emma Thompson revealed she had to rehearse nude with co-star Daryl McCormack for their new movie “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” — but it wasn’t her first rodeo.
“I spent two delightful days nude with Jeff Goldblum when I was in my 20s,” the 63-year-old actress told Vanity Fair.
Thompson’s days spent in the buff with Goldblum, 69, were when they were filming the 1989 rom-com “The Tall Guy.”
“We were both so nervous,” she admitted. “We both had indigestion I think for two weeks beforehand. But once we got into it, we just had the best time.”
The “Sense and Sensibility” actress recalled this pleasing experience as something she knew would end up being useful.
“That has always stood me in good stead because I always remember thinking, ‘Oh, it’s OK, it’s fine. It’s all right.’ As long as you are calm, everyone else is calm,” she said.
Turns out the bare days with Goldbum did come in handy as she prepared to do the same process for “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande.”
“I knew Sophie [Hyde] and me and Daryl, we’d all said, ‘We have to take our kit off before the day, otherwise it’ll just feel too pointed,’ if you’ll pardon the unfortunate expression,” Thompson said.
In the film, Thompson plays a retired school teacher who hires sex worker Leo Grande (McCormack) to help her find her post-marital sexual awakening.
Hyde, the film’s director, arranged a nude rehearsal for Thompson and McCormack on the last day.
“She cleared the little rehearsal space, which had already become quite womblike, and I jokingly said, ‘Soph, you’ll have to take your clothes off as well,’ ” Thompson shared.
Hyde initially declined, but decided to join in after thinking about it.
“So we all took our clothes off bit by bit. And each time we did, we said, ‘This part of my body means this to me. And in this part of my body, I have felt these things. And in this part of my body, I’ve got this scar which came from this experience,’ or, ‘I’ve got an internal scar,’ or, ‘This is the bit that I like. This is the bit I don’t like. I find this bit difficult,’ ” the actress said.
Thompson also said it’s hard to “unlearn” not being able to accept one’s body because “it’s brainwashing.”
“It’s something that I’ve fought against all my life, but I can’t fill in those runnels. I just can’t do it. But I can try to be the change. At least I can be honest. And at least I can say, ‘Look, I accept this now.’ I accept my body. I don’t have to love it, but I accept it,” she said.
“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” is streaming on Hulu.
