Imagine a camera crew capturing every move, a set full of people watching, while the actor is partially or completely nude, sometimes with just a small modesty garment for cover.
Even though the use of intimacy coordinators has helped make these scenes less uncomfortable, there are still other ways that actors can make the experience a bit more manageable.
This was the situation for Nicole Kidman when she filmed Eyes Wide Shut with her then-husband, Tom Cruise.
The entire filming process was an unusual experience, as both Kidman and Cruise had agreed to an open-ended contract, essentially agreeing to keep shooting until director Stanley Kubrick decided he was finished.
The production of Eyes Wide Shut is famously chaotic; Kidman and Cruise’s children even picked up British accents due to their extended stay. The shoot, originally planned for just a few months, ended up lasting two years.
However, when it came to the specific clauses about the intimate scenes, Kidman was much more cautious, ensuring she felt secure compared to the more casual approach she took when agreeing to the indefinite filming schedule.
“So we came up with a great agreement, which was contractual. He would show me the scenes with the nudity before they made it into the film.”
“Then I could feel completely safe. I didn’t say no to any of it. I’d wanted to make sure that it wasn’t going to be me standing there nude and everyone laughing at me.”
The film dives deeply into themes of sexuality, with Cruise and Kidman portraying a couple navigating sexual exploration and the complexities of marital infidelity.
Kidman noted: “Sexuality is over here in a box, and we don’t deal with it.”
“Then I’ll go down the road with you. I love the relationship between a director and an actor. When it’s pure, it’s exquisite. And the other actors, when you’re all there doing the work, it’s exquisite.”
When reflecting on Stanley Kubrick, who passed away just six days after showing Warner Brothers the final cut of the film, she mentioned: “We loved working with him.”
“We would say, ‘When is it going to end?’ We went over there thinking it was going to be three months. It turned into a year, a year and a half. But you go, ‘As long as I surrender to what this is, I’m going to have an incredible time.'”
