"I'm not one to take my clothes off in a movie," MacDowell recently told The Hollywood Reporter, revealing that she shot her first nude scene for 2017's Love After Love at age 59. "Not that I'm a prude or anything, but I think I grew up in a time where most actresses would get body doubles." "After all of that worrying about taking my clothes off, it didn't even affect me in the least, seeing myself naked. 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." She admitted to I News in another interview that "I wish I had walked around naked in movies earlier. I probably should have taken [it all] off in my twenties. I grew up in a conservative family and, in my generation, most actresses hired body doubles for those scenes. But I had an awakening as to what the human body is, and I didn't want my kids (she has two daughters in their 20s who are actresses) in their acting, to feel any shame about their bodies. I want them to feel safe [doing nude scenes] because I had so much shame projected on to me about nudity as a child. It took me raising my children to finally feel more comfortable about my body."
