Andie MacDowell Opens Up About Doing Her Very First Nude Scene — at Age 59

At age 59, Andie MacDowell shot her first nude scene for Love After Love, a family drama about a woman who is dealing with the death of her husband

Photo: Stephen Lovekin/REX/Shutterstock

After more than three decades in the movie business, Andie MacDowell is doing something new: disrobing on film.

At age 59, the actress shot her first nude scene for Love After Love, a family drama about a woman dealing with the death of her husband. The film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday.

“I’m not one to take my clothes off in a movie,” MacDowell recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “Not that I’m a prude or anything, but I think I grew up in a time where most actresses would get body doubles. I was always very conscious of what my children thought. I never wanted to do anything to embarrass them.”

But now that her son and two daughters are grown — and her daughters acting themselves — she figured why not? But that doesn’t mean she was instantly comfortable.

“I’m not the kind of person who’s excited about walking around without my clothes on,” she said. “[Director] Russ [Harbaugh] said to me, ‘How do you want to do this?’ And I said, ‘Well, should I just show you?’ And I went into the bathroom and started practicing what we’re going to do. And I said, ‘What do you think?’ And he said, ‘You’re beautiful! You’re just so beautiful! You’re perfect!’ ”

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Although it took many years for MacDowell to strip down for a movie, she says in the end it was far from a life-changing experience.

“After all of that worrying about taking my clothes off, it didn’t even affect me in the least, seeing myself naked,” she told the outlet. “What affected me more was to see how sad I looked. The only reason I could do that is because I know that sadness. That to me made me feel more vulnerable than being naked. It had no effect on me, being naked, which is fascinating.”