The one scene John Goodman didn’t want to shoot: “I’m no good naked”
Not all actors can be like Martin Freeman. I’m referring here, of course, to Freeman’s work in the Christmas movie Love Actually, a film in which he plays the professional stand-in on film sets for scenes of the, uh, provocative kind.
Throughout the movie, Freeman and his counterpart Judy, played by Joanna Page, find that their surreptitious relationship blossoms into the first stage of going out on a date, despite their naked bodies thwacking into one another, and Freeman being ordered to grab Judy’s breasts as they mumble and grumble through one awkwardly charming conversation after another.
The scenes provide light comedy relief and an air of absurdism to some other, deeper storylines, ones that touch on grief and infidelity, but many actors absolutely reject the notion of taking off their clothes for any scene, emotionally evocative or otherwise.
Think of Penn Badgley, who refused to partake in any sex scenes in the fourth season Netflix series You. American actor John Goodman can certainly relate to this idea. After all, taking off your clothes for the camera has a long and complicated history, for men and women in the industry.
Eventually, Badgley went back on his no sex scene rule for the fifth season, in order to capitalise on some of the darker themes in the show. The success of his character’s long-sought-after demise depended on the slimy salaciousness of his character, after all, but signing up to let the public see your full range of emotions is one thing, and having to show your birthday suit is another. Come on, we’ve all seen Boogie Nights.
Similar to Badley, Goodman first refused a sex scene while working on the television series, The Righteous Gemstones (though, as we’ll find, he’ll later go back on his word). In the sitcom, which first aired in 2019, Goodman stars as the patriarch of the Gemstone family, a famous, dysfunctional family of televangelists. He stars alongside Danny McBride, Edi Patterson, and Adam DeVine. The fourth, concluding season, aired in early 2025.
When discussing the series with The Hollywood Reporter, Goodman was asked to share the most uncomfortable situation the show’s creator, McBride, had put him in, and it turned out to be a howler of a story, with Goodman reminiscing, “I read the final season, and there was one particular scene that I said, ‘I can’t do this.'”
He continued, “It involved the soixante-neuf [French for ’69’] position with my girlfriend. I said, ‘I’m not going to do it.'” The set-up of the scene had hit Goodman, usually always a keen sport, at a sore spot. But there are professional intimacy coordinators for a reason, and the actor was eventually lured into completing the scene.
Goodman concluded, “But they set the sexual position up in a way that it was just funny. I was only uncomfortable for an hour or so, and I’m no good naked.” Humble as ever.
