Nudity at Auditions

Nudity in a film is fine as long as everyone knows all about it – and agrees with it – from the very start. 

But when it comes to auditions, the lines can get a little blurred and new actors can sometimes find themselves in awkward situations.

Whilst nudity on film and at auditions is entirely your choice, this is our advice on how to approach nudity in auditions.

A first audition should never involve nudity or intimate physical contact.

Even if the casting notice says there’s nudity in the film, a professional production will NEVER ask you to go nude on a first audition. Instead, a legitimate first audition (no matter if it’s online or face-to-face) will have you perform a scene fully clothed with a minimum of physical contact. Then, if the role requires nudity, the CD will talk to you about this afterwards.

A callback might include some nudity but only when you are fully prepared, know exactly what the circumstances are, and have agreed as to how this will be filmed (if at all), and agreed to who will be in the room and so on.

A second audition can contain nudity, but you are perfectly within your rights to ask beforehand:

1. Who will be in the room during the audition?
2. Will underwear be sufficient instead?
3. Will the audition be filmed and what will happen to this video and who will see it?
4. What privacy/protection will be in place?

And importantly, you should feel free to take along someone with you, whom you trust, for support. If the production is legitimate, they will not object to this; if the production kicks up a fuss then this should raise a few alarm bells.

But what about self-taped auditions? Should you ever go nude on a self-tape?

Our advice is again very straightforward here: a self-tape should not contain any nudity at all.

if you think it’s a reasonable request (in the context of the film & production) then a second self-tape can contain some scenes in minimal clothing or perhaps underwear… but only if you are 100% happy with this!

The problem is that allowing a video of yourself naked into cyberspace carries too much risk. In a few years’ time you may be starring in a huge blockbuster film and that’s when there’s a chance an old casting tape might suddenly pop up out of nowhere to embarrass you.

We always suggest to our actors that they can wear something suggestive of the situation but not revealing. Genuine castings will be ok with this.

In some cases you might wish to create a self-tape which does include scenes you’d rather keep secure. In this case you can use a professional video hosting service such as Vimeo (most other video hosting sites are less secure) which allows you to upload the self-tape and then password protect it.

It is difficult – although not impossible – for anyone to download these videos and they are relatively secure. This might be an option but only if you feel comfortable doing this and aware of all the associated privacy/security concerns.

But sometimes a casting notice will not mention nudity at all. You write off for the job, get an audition, and then without warning at the audition (whether online or face-to-face) the CD says they’d like to see you without your clothes on.

If you are suddenly told to strip or kiss out of the blue then politely just leave.

And if it’s the director or producer or a non-actor you are supposed to kiss or behave intimately with, then leave immediately!