Just the other day, Variety released an article asking if a nude scene actually helps you win an Oscar. This article is mostly about male nudity and it points out that men who show off their goods on camera haven't really won an Oscar. It claims, however, that women do. But it made this claim in a way that made it sound like ALL babes who go full-frontal get guaranteed awards. I'm here to say that that is NOT the case.
The article pointed out Halle Berry for 2001's Monster's Ball and Kate Winslet in The Reader in 2008 by name as examples of full-frontal performances that get Oscars. But besides Frances McDormand winning her Oscar this year, my mind went blank trying to think of more award-winning full frontal performances. That made me wonder: how true is it that full-frontal nudity = Oscars?
Let's do some research!
At a first glance, besides Frances McDormand's win in 2021 for Nomadland, no one who has gone full-frontal won in over a decade. Hilary Swank did show her bush and her breasts in Boys Don't Cry which earned her a Best Actress win, but she didn't go full frontal (which makes sense given the context of the movie). Both Kate and Halle had their wins, but what came before?
In 1994, Holly Hunter took home the Oscar for her role as Ada McGrath in Jane Campion's The Piano. She had one sexy scene that showed her nude body off. What a great performance this was!
...And that's it. Seriously. There were some full-frontal women who were nominated, but even that took a long time. Jessica Lange was nominated in 1982 for playing tragic party-girl Frances Farmer - perhaps one of the original tabloid-famous celebrities - where she showed her bush. She lost to Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice. Then in 1987, Glenn Close was nominated (for best actress for the first time in her long nomination career) for her thrilling role in Fatal Attraction.
That being said, showing bush just hasn't been in vogue at the Oscars. So it seems safe to say that full-frontal nudity does not an Oscar make. While a lot of Best Actresses showed their breasts - Jane Fonda in Klute, Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets, Glenda Jackson in Women in Love - full-frontal nudity is not the norm for Oscar winners. To be honest, a lot of these winning performances don't have any skin at all!
It took a long time for full-frontal scenes worth their grain in salt to even be nominated. The 90s saw a lot more full-frontal nudity with Jodie Foster in Nell (who lost to Jessica Lange in a skin-less Blue Sky), Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient who lost to Frances McDormand for Fargo, and Titanic's Kate Winslet who lost to Helen Hunt in As Good as It Gets. Those are some very strong contenders who showed bush and did not take home an Oscar for it.
Even in the 2000s, there weren't that many full-frontal nominees! In 2002, for example, Salma Hayek was nominated for Frida and Diane Lane was nominated for Unfaithful, but they both lost to the clothed Nicole Kidman in The Hours.
The last few years saw the most female nudity being nominated like Lady Gaga in A Star is Born, Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water, and Andra Day in The United States vs. Billie Holiday...but they lost to roles that were not sexualized. Even though Frances is nude in Nomadland, it's not a sex scene and she is not presented in a sexual way. It seems to me that Hollywood believes that sex sells, but they don't think that it is very prestigious.
I will say that even in early Hollywood, before the Hayes Code came and censored sex on screen for decades, that the racy movies of the early 30s and late 20s were not even nominated. And these films were quite popular! No Babyface, no Marlene Dietrich, no Claudette Colbert in Sign of the Cross. Only Norma Shearer's performance in 1930's hot hit The Divorcee - about a newly divorced lady who loves being divorced - was nominated yet alone WON. Then we had to wait over three decades for on-screen sensuality and nudity.
The 60s flirted with more skin, including Natalie Wood's near-nip shot in Splendor in the Grass (1961) which rightfully earned her a Best Actress nomination.
It wasn't until 1965's Darling, which earned Julie Christie a Best Actress nomination AND Oscar win, that we saw nudity on camera at all. What a way to put it back into Hollywood!
When we look at the Best Supporting Actress, it's the same story. This category was not introduced until 1936 and we didn't even see nudity in a nominee until 1960 when Janet Leigh was nominated for Psycho (she was only nominated for supporting?!?!).
But after that, breasts seem to be the norm for Best Supporting Actress nominees. Still, the winners don't often go nude. Rachel Weisz won in 2005 for The Constant Gardener and Alicia Vikander won for The Danish Girl who both showed their bush.
This leads me to my grand conclusion: there is more female nudity than male nudity in Hollywood, but female nudity and sexuality have historically not been given acclaim by the Academy.
Since the Academy is often a reflection of trends in Hollywood, I think you can track trends in nudity by these nominations. Sexiness and skin crept into these categories in the 1960s, and the 70s saw much more sexual freedom, the 80s was a decade filled with nudity but those nude roles did not receive notice from the Academy, and then the 90s-to the present ramped up the range of nude scenes that are praised.
It does seem to be a reality that the stereotype about tear-jerker roles earns you an Oscar which is why we see so many non-sexualized performances earn skintastic Oscars (I keep going back to Nomadland and it's not because Frances isn't sexy, it's because that character had no real love life in the film and her nude scene was purely practical). If any actresses are reading this, go nude - but make it gritty!
That was a lot of nudity research, but I'm always happy to study up on my movie nudity. I'd like to thank The Anatomy...
