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5 actors who have refused to film sex scenes
Home>Celebrity>News
Updated 11:44 24 Apr 2026 GMT+1Published 10:17 24 Apr 2026 GMT+1

5 actors who have refused to film sex scenes

One star turned down a huge role 10 years ago due to the 'graphic sex scenes'

Kiesha Dosanjh

Kiesha Dosanjh

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Featured Image Credit: Alberto Tamargo/Getty Images for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit

Topics: Megan Fox, Penn Badgley, Samuel L Jackson, Sex and Relationships, Celebrity, Film and TV

Kiesha Dosanjh
Kiesha Dosanjh

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We’ve all had those awkward moments when a sex or nudity scene pops up while watching a movie with an older family member.

Sometimes, these scenes are needed for the plotline - no matter how uncomfortable they may be to watch.

But it's just 'pretend', right? Well no, not all the time! In fact, there are a number of films that actually contain unsimulated sex scenes. These include Pink Flamingos (1972), In The Realm of Senses (1976), and the 2013 French movie Stranger By The Lake, which sees main man Franck fall in love with someone he meets at a nudist beach.

However, for those who'd rather skip the 'TMI' scenes - luckily, there are a number of big A-List celebrities who have 'refused' to film these steamy scenes.

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Here are five actors who have reportedly turned down filming sex scenes - and exactly why...

Samuel L Jackson

Samuel L Jackson 'refuses' to do nudity scenes (Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
Samuel L Jackson 'refuses' to do nudity scenes (Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)

Jackson is widely famous for his distinctive voice - and of course his great acting skills. However, there’s one thing he doesn’t wish to be famous for…

The Pulp Fiction star is not a fan of nudity in his movies - and despite being in over 150 of them - he’s keeping some parts largely private.

However, the star understands that sometimes, it has to be done, but 10 years ago - he shared his solution with Howard Stern.

"I might ask for a d**k double," he joked, before adding: "I don't know if it's formidable enough. My aura's so big, I don't know if my d**k is big enough to fill my aura."

Despite this, we have seen Jackson in some steamy scenes, including 2004's In My Country and 2009's Mother and Child. However, he once addressed the awkwardness, exclaiming: "You apologize for both reasons. 'I'm sorry if I get excited' and 'I'm sorry if I don't.' Because sometimes it just ain't happening!"

Megan Fox

Megan Fox once turned down a huge role due to 'graphic' scenes (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)
Megan Fox once turned down a huge role due to 'graphic' scenes (Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

Megan Fox became a celebrity crush around the globe after her appearance in Transformers, but fans won’t be seeing her in steamy scenes anytime soon.

Back in 2018, Fox, who was 29 and pregnant with her third child at the time, revealed she wouldn’t accept a role with sex scenes due to her children.

She told The Sun: "There are just certain things boys should never see their mothers do…"

At the time, she also admitted to turning down a role on HBO in which she was asked to play the role of a sex worker. However, Fox said: "It has very graphic sex scenes, I don’t think my boys could handle that."

Penn Badgley

The Netflix star 'stopped' filming sex scenes during Season 4 of You (Nina Westervelt/WWD via Getty Images)
The Netflix star 'stopped' filming sex scenes during Season 4 of You (Nina Westervelt/WWD via Getty Images)

We’ve seen Badgley do all sorts of crazy stalkerish things in Netflix's You - but sex scenes seem to be where he draws the line.

During season four of the hit Netflix series, the star actually asked the creator to limit the scenes out of respect for his wife.

Speaking on his podcast, Podcrushed, Badgley explained: "Fidelity in every relationship, including my marriage, is important to me. It's got to the point where I don't want to do that."

However - the actor said he understood it wasn’t completely possible to cut them all out due to the plot of the show. Then - it all went 'out the window' when season five rolled around.

"I had to throw that out the window," the Gossip Girl star told People, although he said the shift was a 'real question' he had with producers.

"That was the question again. All right, what am I willing to do?" Badgley added. "And as I always said, I said, my desire is that least as possible, but if it's necessary, that's the show we all sign up to make. So, let's make sure it's vital, let's make sure it's important, it's deliberate. And we did."

Rebel Wilson

Wilson has a 'no nudity policy' (Eamonn M. McCormack/Variety via Getty Images)
Wilson has a 'no nudity policy' (Eamonn M. McCormack/Variety via Getty Images)

Pitch Perfect star Rebel Wilson has a strict 'no nudity' policy when she films comedies.

In 2016, she revealed producers wanted a full frontal nudity scene in The Brothers Grimsby - but Wilson had other ideas.

Speaking to Marie Clare, she revealed: "We write in the contract, specifically, 'No nudity.' They got in another girl — this larger burlesque dancer from South Africa — to be a nude double. And they got her to do all this stuff."

Sarah Jessica Parker

SJP never filmed nude during Sex and the City (Christopher Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images)
SJP never filmed nude during Sex and the City (Christopher Polk/Penske Media via Getty Images)

Sex and the City icon SJP is the only one of the New York foursome that didn’t film nude - and actually has a nudity clause.

The nude scenes carried on into the spin-off series, And Just Like That, but once again Parker did not partake.

Appearing on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM radio show, she said: "The only thing I said to [creator Darren Star] that I was concerned about was that I just didn’t feel comfortable doing nudity, and I suspected that if it wasn’t in the pilot, it would be a part of a series."

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