The 63-year-old 'Love Actually' actress reveals in a new interview that her relaxed attitude to nudity comes from her parents, Phyllida Law and the late Eric Thompson.
- May 24, 2022
AceShowbiz - Emma Thompson finds it "relaxing" to be in a "room full of naked people." Not fazed by nudity, the 63-year-old actress insisted there is nothing to worry about when in a situation where a number of people are without clothed because no one "really takes any notice" of anyone else.
"I'm totes relaxed in a communal changing room," she shared. "There is something so relaxing about being in a room full of naked people, like in a German sauna. No one really takes any notice and most of us are just vaguely normal shapes, nothing stupendous, nothing grotesque."
Emma revealed that her relaxed attitude to nudity comes from her parents, Phyllida Law and the late Eric Thompson. "My parents were very relaxed about it, which was regarded as weird by my schoolfriends but I learnt to ignore that because I thought it was stupid," she said, adding that she's hoped to pass her approach on to her and husband Greg Wise's 21-year-old daughter Gaia.
She shared, "I wrote a booklet for Gaia about sex when she was little and, instead of 'sex,' I used the word 'shavoom.' I thought it was friendlier and fun. It's a hard word, sex. It has no softness, and so much of sex can be about softness."
The "Love Actually" actress is "very cross" with herself for once having her pubic hair removed because it has never grown back in the same way.
She told The Times magazine, "I had mine off too, for a bit, and am very cross, because it never grew back properly. I am older now, so it's a bit pathetic and wispy. I'd love to have a proper bush."
A scene in Emma's new movie, "Good Luck To You, Leo Grande", sees her character Nancy stand naked in front of her mirror but the actress admitted she is unable to be as at ease with her body in the same way.
"I can't do it. Nancy does something I've never done. When I’m looking in the mirror, I'm always trying to make myself look 'better,' turning this way or that, checking out my a***, pulling something in," she said. "Simply revealing my utter incapacity to accept my body as it is. But in the movie, at that point, Nancy's body has just given her these seconds of pure pleasure and she is marvelling at it - not 'it' as it looks, but 'it' as it has become to her. A place she can be happy. A place she can find genuine bliss."
