There’s no doubt that actors have a pretty cool job, but in addition to the fun characters they get to play and interesting predicaments they get to act out, they’re also sometimes asked to do some pretty awkward sex scenes. I’d imagine it can be uncomfortable having to undress in front of someone you just met, and according to Charlie Day, that’s especially true if that person is Jennifer Aniston.
Jennifer Aniston and Charlie Day starred in Horrible Bosses, the 2011 comedy in which Day’s character, dental assistant Dale, makes a plan to kill his boss (Aniston) after she sexually harasses him and blackmails him with photos. Well, before they shot that scene, there had to be blackmail-worthy pics, right? So the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star said that made for an interesting first day on set. Day told EW:
Our very first day of filming, we actually had to [shoot] the photographs that she bribes me with. That was like, 'Hi, how are you. Alright, pardon me, I'm going to take all of my clothes off.' I never felt pastier and doughier and just less attractive.
That seems like a very appropriate reaction to have. I can’t even look at Jennifer Aniston’s Instagram without questioning all of my life choices, so I can only imagine having to disrobe in front of her actual eyes.
I mean, this is Jennifer Aniston we’re talking about here. She may not deprive herself, and she may not subscribe to the “no pain, no gain” method of fitness, but she also looks like she hasn’t aged since Friends. (Honestly, she has no business calling Paul Rudd an “ageless freak”!)
That said, Jennifer Aniston is a professional, and even though this movie pre-dated intimacy coordinators, I can’t imagine that she made Charlie Day feel anything but comfortable — hopefully the exact opposite experience of the Horrible Bosses characters they were portraying.
Other actors have opened up about being nude on set. Some are super comfortable, like Jennifer Lawrence, who felt no need to use a body double in No Hard Feelings (which is one of the sexually explicit movies you can watch on Hulu).
Channing Tatum, as well, didn’t seem to have the same issues as Charlie Day when he had to bare it all to Sandra Bullock — Jennifer Aniston’s longtime buddy — on Day 2 of The Lost City. However, I’d imagine Tatum meeting Peter Dinklage for the first time “full monty” was an experience from The Roofman that neither actor will soon forget.
All of these instances of actors getting naked with someone just a day or two after meeting sounds incredibly intimidating, but Kristen Bell’s most awkward sex scene may have all of these guys beat. On House of Lies, she spent an afternoon pretending to have “raunchy sex” with her best friend Ryan Hansen just hours after Hansen had been a witness at Bell’s wedding to Dax Shepard.
In reality, I’m sure Charlie Day wasn’t anywhere near as pasty or doughy as he felt while stripping down in front of Jennifer Aniston, but I can certainly understand how one would feel that way.
