Keira Knightley will no longer go nude for male-directed sex scenes

Keira Knightley has revealed her “absolute ban” to strip down for male-directed sex scenes.

“I don’t have an absolute ban, but I kind of do with men,” the 35-year-old actress revealed on the podcast Chanel Connects.

“It’s partly vanity and also it’s the male gaze,” the Pirates of the Caribbean star said, “I feel very uncomfortable now trying to portray the male gaze. Saying that, there’s times where I go, ‘Yeah, I completely see where this sex would be really good in this film, and you basically just need somebody to look hot.’”

Speaking of her highly praised sex scene in the 2007 movie Atonement, directed by Joe Wright, she said in a 2019 Vulture interview. “It was absolutely, ‘Foot goes up there, a hand goes up there.’ So both me and James [McAvoy] felt utterly comfortable and not exposed, and like we could deal with it. It’s never gonna be fun, but we could deal with it.”

“If I was making a story that was about that journey of motherhood and body acceptance, I feel like, I’m sorry, but that would have to be with a female filmmaker,” she continued. “I don’t want it to be those horrible sex scenes where you’re all greased up and everybody is grunting. I’m not interested in doing that.”

Knightley who has two children - 5-year-old daughter Edie and 1-year-old Delilah with her musician husband James Righton further that her feelings and comfort with on-screen nudity have changed since becoming a mom, and simply prefers other actors besides herself be cast for scenes that require nudity.

“So, therefore, you can use somebody else, because I’m too vain and the body has had two children now, and I’d just rather not stand in front of a group of men naked,” Knightley continued, “We all empathize with men hugely because, culturally, their experience is so explored. We know so many aspects of even male sexuality. But we don’t feel like men can say, ‘Yes, I understand what you’re talking about, because I’ve got this wealth of art and film and theater and TV from your point of view.’”