Women need to get naked to be successfull
Rachel Ward says young starlets must go nude to be successful
IT may be a double standard, but actress and film-maker Rachel Ward says young starlets just have to accept that audiences have a right to see them - but not men - naked.
After refusing to bare more than her breasts throughout her career, Ward says she now wishes she had appeared fully nude more often.
"If you're going to be an actress in film, you can't be coy," Ward told The Sunday Telegraph.
"Breasts are sexy. I want to see them and audiences want to see them . . . I've certainly had to do my fair share of it. If you're going to be an actress or a model, it's usually part of the package."
Men don't have to worry about the issue though because, well, their privates don't make pleasant viewing, she says.
"We don't want to see willies because they're ugly," Ward says.
"We want to see breasts because they're beautiful."
Ward says she has never appeared fully nude in three decades working in film and television, adding that it was "a constant battle with directors" over taking all her clothes off.
But now, at 51, a candid Ward said: "I wish I had. I was just a prudish English girl and I wish I had been less prudish about it really. I don't think we have a hell of a lot to be serious about at this point.
"I think that comes with a body of work but to start with it is an incredibly competitive business."
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Ward was speaking ahead of yesterday's world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival of her feature film Beautiful Kate, which will screen across Autralia from August 6.
The film is a mystery drama exploring "adolescent sexuality and the expression of beauty".
However, there was no risk of Ward stripping off for this one.
The actress was on the other side of the camera - writing and directing the film, which stars her husband Bryan Brown, Rachel Griffiths, Ben Mendelsohn, Sophie Lowe and Maeve Dermody. Ward said nudity should not be a big issue for an actress.
"You're in a movie because you're appealing and because you represent the aspiration, the fantasy, the ideal," she said. "I resisted that but, when you're in the business, when you're making a film, one doesn't have to take it all too seriously. We're not curing cancer . . . it's entertainment. We want to get people into theatres."
For young actress Dermody, 23, the decision to appear fully nude for the first time in Beautiful Kate was a hard one, but working with a female director made it easier.
"It was the first time I'd done it," said Dermody, hailed as one of Australia's brightest acting hopefuls. "Previously I'd been quite stubborn about sex scenes, standing my ground with it a bit more.
"But now I'm more fearful about the film being shown than the actual shooting of it, to be honest."
Ward's daughter, Matilda Brown, is the same age and is also an actress.
"It is something my daughter is having to think about as an actress," Ward said.
"She is thinking about this thing at the moment where she's done a photograph in a bra, she's in her underwear."
