In 2018, Emma Stone surprised audiences worldwide when she had her first n*de scene in the movie ‘The Favourite’.
In the movie she plays Abigail who fights with her cousin Lady Sarah (played by Rachel Weisz), who is taking care of the Queen’s affairs, to try and gain Queen Anne’s (played by Olivia Colman) affection after she falls ill and can’t rule properly.
As they try outrageous things to get closer to the Queen, Abigail eventually manages to sleep with her, and when Lady Sarah goes into the Queen’s room she sees her cousin lying naked with the Queen.
This scene fits perfectly within the film because it served as a slap in Lady Sarah’s face and proved that Abigail had won their battle and gained the Queen’s affection in a way Lady Sarah couldn’t, no matter how close she was to the Queen.
Emma Stone isn’t sexualized in the scene, only showing her breast, and the most interesting thing about this scene is that it wasn’t in the script. Emma just felt that it was the right thing to do while they were shooting:
I had the sheet up around me, and as we were shooting it and we did a few takes, I said, ‘Can I please just be [naked]? I think it’s going to give Sarah something to look at when she sees that I’m not just under the sheet covered up.’
Olivia was like, ‘No, don’t do it!’ [director] Yorgos [Lanthimos] was like, ‘Are you sure that’s what you want to do?’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely.’
I chose to do it. I was like, this makes sense to me. It’s an absolute [Stone flips the bird] to Sarah.
Even though it wasn’t necessary, the scene makes a big difference in showing how far Abigail was willing to go in order to beat her cousin.
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