In our weekly series Anatomy of a Nude Scene, we're going to be taking a look at (in)famous sex scenes and nude scenes throughout cinema history and examining their construction, their relationship to the film around it, and their legacy. This week, Kathryn Hahn doesn't wait until the middle of a cold dark night in 2013's Afternoon Delight!
Now that Kathryn Hahn is everyone's new favorite character actress thanks to her scene stealing turn on WandaVision, new fans are scouring her back catalog for nudity. The actress—who grew up just west of Chicago in the village of Westchester, IL—had two scene stealing turns in two big comedies of the early aughts, with most folks first taking notice of her in 2003's How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and 2004's Anchorman. By 2008's Step Brothers, Kathryn went from stealing scenes to stealing entire films, while also slyly building up a damn impressive resume by working outside the world of comedy with Oscar-winning directors like Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road) and James L. Brooks (How Do You Know).
Hahn is insanely versatile in a way where she can show up and be completely at home in the broadest comedies and the most deadly serious dramas. We buy her as both a woman desperate to become a mother in Private Life and as a mother desperate to get away from her kids in Bad Moms. It's not a luxury that's afforded to as many actresses as it is actors, but Hahn's utter brilliance in everything she's done has made her a sure bet for just about any role in just about any movie or television program. There's kinda nothing she can't do, to say she can do anything just one other way.
Even if they didn't know her by name when she turned up in 60 million homes thanks to her role as Agnes/Agatha on WandaVision earlier this year, even the "worst with names" among us knew that they had seen her in other things. The fun part of the last three months has been people remembering ALL of the things she's done in the last twenty years, and those of us who've been on her bandwagon for over a decade sit back and marvel at her versatility all over again.
Obviously you've come to Mr. Skin because you want to see if she's been naked in things and that's natural, that's the service we provide. She's got a lot of nude scenes to choose from and a great many of the best ones are from her work on television, particularly the shows I Love Dick and Mrs. Fletcher. If you're ready to see a whole new side of Kathryn, both of those programs provide her sexiest work to date. The thing a great number of folks love most about Kathryn Hahn is her next door neighbor down-to-earth groundedness as an actress, and a great place to see normal-looking sex and sexuality is in 2013's film Afternoon Delight.
Written and directed by Transparent creator Joey Soloway (under their former name Jill), the film finds Hahn's stay-at-home mom Rachel longing for something more in her life. Not that anything's wrong, necessarily, but her sex life with husband Jeff (Josh Radnor) is terribly boring and the only person she interacts with most days is her young son Logan. In hopes of spicing things up, Rachel takes Jeff to a strip club one night, purchasing a lapdance for him from 19 year old stripper McKenna (Juno Temple), but it fails to get anything going between them in the bedroom.
Rachel returns to the strip club the next day to meet with McKenna again and the two strike up a friendship based on a woman in the midst of middle-aged malaise living vicariously through a young, free-spirited stripper in hopes of rediscovering her own inner passion. Things go up and down and sideways between the two of them over the course of the film, with McKenna even working as a nanny to Logan at one point, but the film's happy ending finds Rachel getting a literal happy ending.
Rachel and Jeff's marriage hits a real rough patch 2/3 of the way through the film but both of them decide that they really don't want to die alone. They also admit that they love one another, but they're also up front about their codependency, which leads to the best sex of their lives, culminating in Hahn orgasming...
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Soloway and Hahn would work together the very next year on the aforementioned Transparent, followed by I Love Dick in 2016, with the ever versatile star proving to be quite a muse for Soloway over several years. Since the film itself cheats us out of the on-the-nose joy of ever hearing the titular song play, I decided that, in honor of Hahn's small but memorable role in Anchorman, I'd treat us all to a great rendition of one of the god damned catchiest tunes that ever was.
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Catch up with our most recent editions of Anatomy of a Nude Scene
—Amber Heard Informs Us About Her Nude Body in The Informers
—Shari Solanis' Skinsational Real Sex Scenes in Now and Later
—Busty Beauty Pam Grier Becomes a Blaxploitation Icon in 1973's Coffy
—Christina Ricci Goes Nude for the First Time in the Opening Minutes of Prozac Nation
—A Salute to Tanya Roberts' PG Nudity in Sheena and The Beastmaster
—Sarah Silverman is Seriously Sexy (and Topless) in I Smile Back
—Jessica Chastain's Nude Debut in Salomé Takes Director Al Pacino Over a Decade to Finish
—Salma Hayek Knocks Our Pants Off with Her Performance in Frida
—Kirsten Dunst Goes Topless for the First Time in All Good Things
—Kristen Stewart Pops Her Top Off in On the Road
—Uma Thurman Steals Dangerous Liaisons Out From Under Her More Famous Co-Stars
—Did They Really Kill a Chicken During That Infamous Pink Flamingos Sex Scene?
—A Naked Julie Michaels Kicks Keanu's Ass in Point Break
—Alexis Dziena Gives Aging Lothario Bill Murray an Eyeful in Broken Flowers
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Click Here to Read All Past Editions of Anatomy of a Nude Scene/Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy
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