Joanna Lumley brands sex scenes ‘revolting’ and felt ‘exploited’ going topless in film roles
‘I find them unbearable!’: Joanna Lumley calls on the film industry to cut ‘repulsive’ sex scenes and reveals she felt ‘exploited’ when she went topless in film roles
Joanna Lumley has reflected on the “exploitative” film industry, provoking the hunger for sex scenes and nudity on screen.
The actress, 77, revealed them has always hated filming sex scenes, comparing them to making “soft porn” and admitting she wishes they were cut entirely.
Looking back on her early years in the film and TV business, she shared The protector that it was common for actresses to strip down for movie roles, noting, “It was standard and it was this: ‘You’re not a real actress unless you take your top off.’
“No one liked it, just like no one likes intimate kisses or sex scenes. All that horrible stuff we have to pretend.’
While she admitted it’s “nice” that modern movie sets have intimacy coaches, she admitted that she still would prefer sex scenes to be cut altogether.
Not impressed: Joanna Lumley has reflected on the ‘exploitative’ film industry and has slammed the appetite for on-screen sex scenes and nudity
Three in a bed: The actress, 77, revealed she’s always hated filming sex scenes (pictured with Leslie Phillips and Brian Rix in 1973’s Don’t Just Lie There, Say Something!)
“I find them unbearable!” she mused, “I find them repulsive, I don’t know why people write them and I don’t know why we watch them. We wouldn’t have movies of people sitting on the toilet. Some things are private.’
When asked if she felt there was an exploitative element to her topless scenes, Joanna replied, “Oh, there always is.” But there are plenty of other things you have to do in life that are horrible, and you’ve never wanted to do them, and you find yourself caught up in them.”
Joanna famously appeared topless in the 1971 film Games That Lovers Play, in which she co-starred as a brothel owner with Penny Brahms.
During a 2021 interview with Esther Rantzen about her That’s afterlife! podcast, the Absolutely Fabulous star said she quickly realized there were different expectations for male and female actors when it came to showing skin on screen.
“You would never see the front of a man, but you would always see the front of a woman,” she explained.
“All women were expected to go topless, Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Christie, we all had to take off our tops. It was part of the excitement of the time.
“Yeah I was in a movie called Breaking Of Bumbo and I was in it with the beautiful Richard Warwick we did one of these love scenes where we walked up to each other naked the day we were born but guess what you saw Richard’s back and buttocks and you can see my whole front.
‘That was part of it. I hated nude scenes. I never longed to undress and run into the sea. I’m quite a prude.’
In 2018, Joanna stated that she felt pressured to appear topless for fear of not being taken seriously as an actress, and in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal claimed that sexual harassment was “everywhere – and is” .
Revealing: The Absolutely Fabulous star (right) famously appeared in a topless scene for the 1971 film Games That Lovers Play (pictured with Diane Hart)