When I recently gathered all the Vicky Krieps files in one place, I discovered that, if we count transparent tops as nudity, she has done 18 nude roles in just 14 years. That’s an impressive pace.
I’ve never calculated who the all-time champ might be among legitimate actresses. Have any of you ever tried to figure this out?
Below are some prolific actresses listed with Mr. Skin’s “nude roles” count. This is not a comprehensive list and we can’t rely on it, for two reasons:
Among the women I looked up, these performed more than 15 nude roles by Mr. Skin’s count. You can safely say they were in AT LEAST that many, because I know of no instance where his count is too high. In order to be considered as legitimate actresses for this list, they need a nomination or award from one of the national academies. (Oscar, Cesar, BAFTA, AACTA, Ariel, Genie, Goya, Golden Calf, other)
In the case of Vicky Krieps, we used my count, since I just worked on it. “Uncle” also offered some alternate counts. The bottom of the list includes some actresses with fewer than 15 roles because they may be the leaders from their countries.
Victoria Abril 32 (Highest Spain)
Isela Vega 29 (Phone Ranger’s count, Mr. Skin says 18. Highest Mexico??) “”””
Isabelle Huppert 28 (Highest France)
Monica Bellucci 27 (Highest Italy)
Charlotte Rampling 26 (27 per “uncle.” Highest England, Highest English-speaking)
Sophie Marceau 23
Emmanuelle Béart 23
Irène Jacob 22 (Highest Switzerland) *
Sharon Stone 22 (Highest USA)
Nicole Kidman 21 (Highest Australia)
Jane Birkin 20
Blanca Guerra 20
Charlotte Gainsbourg 17 (20 per “uncle”)
Nasty Kinski 19 (Highest Germany)
Élodie Bouchez 19
Juliette Binoche 19
Carol Laure 18 (Highest Canada)
Marion Cotillard 17
Greta Scacchi 17 (Phone Ranger’s count, Mr. Skin lists 14)
Kate Winslet 16
Helen Mirren 16
Elsa Zylberstein 16
Vicky Krieps 16 (16 is my count; Highest Luxembourg)
Romy Schneider 14 (Highest Austria)
Cecile de France 13 (Ironically, not France. Highest Belgium)
(High Netherlands TBD) ***
Sonia Braga 10 (Highest Brazil??)
Helen Shaver 9 (Highest Canada, not French??) **
(* Yes, I know Jacob was born in France)
(** Pamela Anderson has more nude scenes than Shaver. Believe it or not, she’s a borderline case for the list, even though she spent most of her life just getting naked and getting Razzies. She has no nomination from any of the academies, but she has been nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in The Last Showgirl!)
(*** Apples-to-apples, Mr. Skin has 10 for Carice van Houton, 9 for Maruschka Detmers, and 8 for Gaite Jensen. BUT Phone Ranger says Detmers has 11, and Steverino says Jensen has 12, so there’s some question about the Highest Netherlands. I have not fact-checked the counts.)
(**** Apples-to-apples, Mr. Skin says Blanca Guerra 20, Isela Vega 18, so there’s some question about the Highest Mexico. I have not fact-checked the counts.)
Victoria Abril, and Nicole Kidman might be up over 20?
Yup. Your comment inspired me to expand the post.
Finally, a meaningful/significant use of statistics!😉😍🙂🥳
carry on …
Should extra credit be given to trailblazers? Asking for a friend.
It does make me wonder, what’s the line we draw of “legitimate actress”?
If they appear in a film where the primary purpose of the film is to have naked women, it’s not legitimate. I think most of us can figure out the difference between somebody who makes a living by acting and somebody who makes a living by getting naked.
Of course Julie Strain will have 60 nude scenes because she was in 60 movies where the sole purpose of the movie was to show Julie Strain naked. That’s not the kind of roles we’re looking for.
Would Linnea Quigley count?
According to Mrskin she has 40, but you’d probably consider her “somebody who makes a living by getting naked”
You’ve really found the middle of the gray area there. Maybe ‘actual actress’ = two or more lines in the film?
A great example of the fuzzy area. Because, even in movies where she has a real role, and movie doesn’t exist primarily as a Naked Women Delivery Vehicle (Return of the Living Dead, Witchtrap), on some level she was hired to be naked in those movies. Her willingness to get naked was pretty much why she was hired, even if that wasn’t what those movies are “about”.
I don’t see that as fuzzy. In those cases, the films didn’t exist just for nudity, but Linnea was hired to get naked, not to act. We’re looking for women who were hired to act rather than women who were hired to get naked.
There are probably some fuzzy cases. For example, Barbara Crampton appeared in real movies as well as exploitation films, and she was also hired for her acting ability in roles where she kept her clothes on. But she didn’t do enough nude scenes to reach the top of the leaderboard, so it’s moot.
That’s a different definition than you give upstream, which was more about the purpose of the movie itself than why the actress was cast. But that’s an important distinction to make! Zack & Miri Make A Porno is a mainstream movie, but Smith made a point of casting Katie Morgan as Someone To Be Naked in the movie, because of her porn credentials. I feel like there is something of a firmer line being drawn between “these actors are here to ACT” and “your job is to be a naked extra”.
To eliminate quibbling, I changed to an objective definition. The actress has to be nominated for one of the awards given by the national academies (Oscar, Genie, AACTA, BAFTA, Goya, Cesar, Golden Calf …)
That left everyone on the original list except Claire Keim.
That’s a fairly restrictive criterion. There are lots of serious actresses out there who have appeared frequently in the nude, but who are not given their roles simply to get nude and also who have not been nominated for a major acting award. I.e., serious actresses are not just identified by having been nominated for awards. But it’s your question, so your rules.
Of the two additions that I proposed, Eva Green has been nominated (César, Golden Globe), but Heather Graham has not (aside from sharing in Screen Actors Guild ‘whole cast’ awards).
1) I needed some objective definition, or we could debate the list forever. It’s obvious to me that Linnea Quigley and Laura Gemser don’t belong, but some people will call them mainstream actresses, so I needed some reasonable screening procedure.
2) Neither Graham nor Green has the required 16 nude scenes to make the list, or is a country leader to make the alternate group, so it is moot. Green would make it if she had the numbers.
3) The criterion wasn’t that restrictive. The only one I lost from the original list was Claire Keim. I would consider her a legitimate actress, but the buck has to stop somewhere, and that’s where it halted.
4) If, upon examination, Graham turns out to have 16 nude scenes, I would admit her as a special exception for two reasons: (1) She has been hired in her career to do 100 non-nude roles, so she’s obviously legit. (2) My original intention was to include legitimate actresses, but my criterion includes only good legitimate actresses. That’s not a perfect match. I never intended to exclude bad legitimate actresses. (Sorry, Heather, you’re my all-time very favorite, and from Wisconsin to boot, but …) It’s possible that I should make that same exception for Claire Keim, but she’s just not important enough to fuss over.
Fair enough. One online source I saw indicated that Green has had 15 nude roles, so maybe just short, but I have only been able to find 11 myself. Graham also falls short of 16, but I certainly accept your including her on an honorary basis. That said, both have at least had very notable and numerous nude roles, even if falling short based on your criteria.
I wouldn’t consider Victoria Abril borderline.
She’s still an active actress to this day and has been nominated for the Goya award numerous times with one win. She got nominated for Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down! How many serious actors get nominated in their nation’s top awards for masturbating with a toy?!?!?!
The only reason I placed her in that category is that she did some of her nude scenes in exploitation films. She also did them in mainstream films, and I’ve never given the issue enough thought to speculate about how the numbers shake out. My inclination is to leave her on the list.
Five of her Goya noms had nudity although the one win did not.
She also had a Cesar and an Edda nom where she got naked. That’s what we call versatility.
I get 27 for Charlotte Rampling
20 for Charlotte Gainsbourg
That would make Rampling the highest among English actresses as well as among English-speaking actresses (higher than the Aussies and Americans, excluding exploitation films).
Have you a list for Charlotte Rampling. I come up with 23.
It is also not clear to me how Mr. Skin arrived at 26.
Since we’re including breakdowns by nation I feel I should include some great Canadians.
Obviously Shannon Tweed and her 34 appearances. They gotta be all serious right?
Carole Laure has 18 but she’s Quebecois and they’re a little different there. She has been awarded the Order of Canada. That puts her on par with Dame Mirren.
Shannon Tweed is an interesting example, because while she has a lot of movies that were “erotic thrillers”, they weren’t T&A fests, but movies with 2 or 3 erotic scenes. Dime store Basic Instincts, as it were. Not to mention she does have plenty of non-naked roles. I don’t think she gets naked in the one where she’s the John McClane character in Die Hard At A Beauty Pageant.
Shannon Tweed was not an actress. She was a nude model who occasionally put her clothes on. Even hard-core porn films have some plot, but as with Shannon Tweed films, people don’t watch ’em for the plot.
The women on this list have all been nominated for an Oscar, Goya, Cesar, Genie, BAFTA, Golden Calf or AACTA.
Carol Laure is a legit contender. She has a Genie nomination. Helen Shaver does as well.
Helen Shaver and Rae Dawn Chong have 9 each. Natasha Hentsridge has 10.
We could probably hack our way through the 3* actors but there’s a lot and we could come up with nothing.
So by my definition, Shaver the top legit actress (two Genie noms), but Henstridge gets an asterisk.
Pamela Anderson would be the English/Canadian winner with 12, if I lowered the standard just a hair to include Golden Globe nominations.
Just like nowadays there’s a fine line between celeb and amateur ~ very fine! There’s also a fine line between legitimate nudity and exploitation + some actresses just❤️being naked. Praise the lord!🙏
(Based on aznude data)
Marion Cotillard (Oscar winner) looks to be well over 20.
Isild Le Besco, a personal favorite, has at least 15.
Vive la France!
Skin says 17 and 13, but his numbers will always be low rather than high, so AZ’c count is probably in the right ballpark.
I get 26 for Laura Gemser from Nudography but i have 30 clips in my folder.
Some could be under foreign names.
Mr. Skin says 37 for Gemser. I assume the true number is much higher, as she was in 59 films per IMDb, and probably got naked in all or almost all, but she doesn’t meet my criterion for being in the top ten – no acting award or nomination from one of the national academies.
She fits into the Julie Strain league.
I know i would have given her one.
The way Jennifer Lawrence is going, she might overtake everyone on this list by the time she turns 80 years old. Goddamn, she so fine that she still be gettin dicks
Eva Green is missing from that list. She has been nude in at least 15 roles. Heather Graham should be there too – I count at least 10 for her, probably more. I think that some other notable actresses may be missing as well. How often has Virginie Efira been nude, for example? I don’t have time to research. Other actresses may not yet be at a high total count, but you have got to wonder if they eventually will be, such as Emma Stone and Alison Brie, both of whom are serious actresses and have said positive things about appearing nude in their roles, God bless them.
According to Skin’s count, Green 9, Graham 12, Efira 10.
Once again, I have not fact-checked, and his numbers will be low rather than high, as evidenced by the Krieps example.
In conclusion: it pays to watch foreign movies
Vive la France
I had to go look up my girl Salma to see where she fits in and she only has 7 scenes.
Meanwhile Blanca Guerra has 114 credits with 20 nude appearances. She’s been nominated for the Ariel award 10 times with 7 wins. She’s still working at 73.
Good addition. I was wondering about Mexico
Isela Vega has 18 nude movies and is also multi-Ariel winner.
Kitten Natividad by comparison has 18 as well although her acting skills appear to be less regarded.
Added Isela
I have Isela at 29 nudes and a see-thru.
Thanks, sir. This is why I visit this website.
I have Greta Scacchi at 17 nude appearances and a BAFTA nom. Of course this is not the lead for Italy but it’s significant.
That could potentially give her second place for two different countries (Italy and Australia, where she is a citizen).
For Netherlands, Maruschka Detmers has 11 appearances and a Cesar nom.
Got it
Quiet current figure on the end of the year nude poll Noemie Merlant has 14 nude roles (AZ Nude and Mr Skin has some gaps in their count; while AZ Nude strangely doesn’t count Portrait on a Lady on Fire, Mr Skin didn’t figure her nude roles pre-Portrait).
Also another recurrent figure in recent nudography, Franco-British actress Stacy Martin has 12 nude roles since she started her career in 2013 (the number can go higher if you count the nip-slip in Islands, the see-though view of her breast in The Childhood of a Leader and if you count Nymphomaniac as 2 movies).
Rae Dawn Chong is definitely 10. Mr Skin left out “Prison Stories: Women on the Inside” (1990),
possibly because the nudity wasn’t obvious. Rae and Annabella Sciorra are taking a shower and their nips make a few appearances from the bottom of the screen. They are quite visible in a collage by Blackshine.
In honor of the new film coming out, and by order of the Peakie Fucking Blinders, add Gaite Jansen to the list. She an all time fave, a Golden Calf nominee, and has at least 12 nude appearances.
I think that wins her top Netherlands, no?
*peaky
Never realized how much I love Dutch women until this post. Can’t lose. I always found nudography.com to be more comprehensive than mrskin.
Detmers
Van Houten
Jensen