| Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack in 'Good luck to you, Leo Grande' |
Why it’s so surprising for a 63-year-old woman to appear nude on the big screen
‘Women have been brainwashed all our lives. That’s the fact of it,’ the actress said about the scene that sparked a debate about the taboos of nude bodies of women over 45
Carlos Megía
September 11, 2022
It only lasts 20 seconds, but it’s more than enough time. The shot of a nude woman looking at herself in a rectangular mirror shocked a society unaccustomed to seeing itself reflected, without euphemisms, on the big screen. She doesn’t move. She doesn’t speak. She sheds her bathrobe and examines herself serenely: the breasts less tight, the gradual cellulitis, the rounding abdomen, hanging skin. At 62 years old, Emma Thompson, the protagonist, appears without aesthetic retouching or filters, trying to accept herself amidst the judgment of a body far from those of the cinema canon. “That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” the actress admits. The scene comes at the end of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, one of the surprises of the year on the indie circuit. After its success at festivals, it now reaches our screens. The British production brings to life a retired professor who, after her husband’s death, hires a young sex worker in order to discover her own body and the sexual wholeness that she lacked in her marriage. The tragicomedy has, intentionally or not, spurred a controversial debate about why mature nudity is still a taboo in fiction.