Michelle Trachtenberg - out and about in Los Angeles 06/08/11 x13HQ

Better to turn the argument around and say; Nudity has never had negative effect on a female actress career.

 

But the scenes you mention are not examples of nudity helping careers. These are examples of actresses in the primes of their careers, in the roles of their careers. Halle Berry won an Oscar for Monster's Ball because of her performance, so where does the boost from nudity come in? Same with Heather Graham in Boogie Nights.

You haven't given even one example of a career being boosted or helped or made by a nude appearance. All you've done is list famous actresses in certain nude scenes, and each and every one of the starlets you mention had a career before their nude scene.

So just admit you're wrong and move on. No need to be childish about it. You made a mistake, and now you've been called on it. No biggie.

 

Several of the examples I listed were examples of nudity that did help the career of the actress in question - Biel, Thurman, and Graham were all much bigger starlets after the scenes in question. Uma's nudity (the film escapes me) is widely credited with getting her the attention that helped make her a star; Biel's photospread in Gear is often credited with gaining her the attention that led to her escaping from typecasting and branching out with a career as a more adult actress; Graham's nudity, as with Halle's, is often cited as an example where the explicit nature of the nude scene helped her gain recognition as a brave actress who is willing to strip down for the role, among other things. So, I do firmly believe, as I originally stated, that their nudity helped their careers. Some of them had little or no career before their nude scenes, but I have mostly avoided uses examples of complete unknowns because it is more difficult to trace their fame back to their bodies as opposed to their talent, but most (if, I concede, not all) examples are of women who's nudity has been cited at one point or another as a contributing factor to their careers. I do not believe I was mistaken at all.

 

Alright, let's take this one at a time.

Jessica Biel was not a bigger star because of the Gear shoot. That wasn't even the intent of the shoot; it was meant to get her out of her contract with Aaron Spelling--which it failed to do. And it wasn't until six years later that she landed her first respectable role, which was in The Illusionist, so obviously the nude shoot had no positive impact on her career. All of this "branching out" she's done has been to mostly commercial and critical failure, leaving 7th Heaven as still being the most praised and popular thing she's ever done.

Uma Thurman just happens to have done a lot of nude roles early in her career, and there is no evidence that it was a requirement of her popularity or success as an actor. Since her nude roles almost all came so early on, saying that she's more famous after that than before is moot, since she started out doing nude roles. What's important to note here, however, is that the nude roles weren't JUST nude roles. That's the salient point here; this isn't Uma doing Poison Ivy like Drew Barrymore or Jamie Pressly; this is her doing legitimate, credible work that just so happens to have nudity. This idea that it is "widely credited" as being the reason she became popular is, frankly, some bullshit you just made up. Nobody "widely credits" her nudity as her claim to fame. She's always been a fine actress, and THAT is what makes her successful.

Heather Graham earned her role in Boogie Nights because she was a good actress, not because she could show her tits. Plenty of other buxom broads auditioned willing to bare it all, but Heather got the gig because she was talented. And Boogie Nights wasn't some minor skin flick meant to get you off, it was critically-praised cinema. She ain't just getting that role for her tits, man. And as with Uma, this role was so early in her career, you can't point to her subsequent fame as evidence that nudity aided her. She would have been just as famous without it. Nudity doesn't make you a better casting.

Halle was already world-famous before the film, and everyone knew she was a fine actress. The explicit nature of the scene was certainly discussed, but it was her emotional nudity that earned her critical and academy praise, not her physical nudity, and you should know that.

So again, you've demonstrated nothing.

 

And, again, you attack only a straw man. My point is not to establish that nudity necessarily makes a difference, only that to make a blanket statement that it never helps a career is too broad an assertion to make with any accuracy.

And, for the record, I think Uma Thurman is a crappy actress, though I recognize that is merely an opinion.

 

jeez - that's kinda what I said 7 (Looooooooooooonnnnnnnnggggggg) posts before this statement!

 

man, i was expecting better pics considering the # of posts. i went to walmart today and saw much better ass.

 

At Walmart, I expect you mean much bigger ass.

 

Who cares if nudity helps a career. I mean it helps that a script calls for it and the actress decides to go for it knowing she will get nude unlike altering the scripts so she won't have to go nude * cough jessica alba, megan fox. I just want to see actresses go nude, whether they when an oscar or not I don't care lol, just as long as we see some skin. And when they have a falling career the better, because then they have a better chance of going nude or something. After all isn't that what we all want here, after all we are a bunch of perves here, haha I'll admit it! Well thats what I hope for is for some nudity esp when their careers aren't going the way they had wanted kinda like "Jennifer Aniston" if the rumors are true of her showing skin in the future

 

That is entirely incorrect. I believe that the first major screen star to do nudity was swimming sensation Annette Kellerman, in the 1910's. Of course nudity by the unknown has been around long before even that.

Also, excepting 'Algiers' (Casbah!), Hedy was more a star of the forties, not thirties.

Look, I'm bowing out of this conversation now because bickering is all this can lead to. You clearly don't know much about classic cinema and simply pulled Hedy's name out to support an argument you were trying to make about screen nudity. Therefore your shaky details are irrelevant, because you were only ever attempting to support a theory, and not to seriously discuss an actress. She means nothing to you so accuracy will not benefit you, and I have no interest in your actress nudity ideas and so her use in your initial post is irrelevant to me. We neither of us have need to argue.

 

there's always some hot college girls at walmart during the summer. wearing short shorts or tight sweats. at least it's like that where i live. yeah, you get the fatties too, but they are everywhere in america. not just walmart.

 

I concede that I slightly misremembered the elements of the film that were the first of their type (it was not the nudity, but rather the type of nudity), but it was still notorious for being the first mainstream film to portray sex as it did (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_(film)). And, despite this, I actually do know a fair amount about classic cinema, having minored in film. That said, I agree, it is high past time to bury this discussion, and will gladly agree to cease having it, and go back to the original purpose of the thread, which was to appreciate Ms. Trachtenberg.

 

Locked at the request of the thread starter. If anyone has adds, PM me and I'll open it for that purpose.