Woman with blonde hair and bangs wearing an off-shoulder gray graphic tee with American and Confederate flags and crossed pistols, looking intensely at camera.
Black Snake Moon
TV + Movies

Christina Ricci Told Sydney Sweeney She Stayed Naked Between Takes Until the Crew Stopped Reacting to Her Body

By

The story came out during a wider conversation about how sex scenes get made now versus then.

Christina Ricci: Once, I had to do a movie where I was naked pretty much the entire time. And I realized, from trying to manage it ahead of time, that the thing that made me more uncomfortable was other people being uncomfortable with me being naked.

Samuel L. Jackson in a white cap and fur-trimmed coat standing next to a Black Snake Moan movie poster at a premiere.
Samuel L. Jackson poses beside the ‘Black Snake Moan’ poster at the film’s New York premiere at Chelsea West Cinemas on February 19, 2007. Photo by Evan Agostini / Getty Images.

Sydney Sweeney: Yes.

Christina Ricci: So, what I did and you probably wouldn’t be allowed to do this now I just stayed naked.

Close-up of a blonde woman with bangs wearing an off-shoulder grey shirt printed with American and Confederate flags, looking intensely at the camera.
A promotional still from ‘Black Snake Moan’ featuring a blonde actress in a worn off-shoulder tee with crossed-flags graphics, shot in an outdoor setting.

Sydney Sweeney: (Laughs) Oh no, they’d throw robes on you now!

Sydney Sweeney smiling in a black sheer turtleneck top with gold hoop earrings, posed in front of a Max Mara Los Angeles event backdrop.
Sydney Sweeney flashes a red-lipped smile at the 2019 Women in Film Max Mara Face of the Future event at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles on June 11, 2019. Photo by Frazer Harrison / Getty Images.

Christina Ricci: Yeah! I was like, “Don’t make me feel weird, like I’m the person who has to be ashamed.” I just stayed naked. I would talk to crew members naked, because I wanted everybody around me to stop reacting to it. Because then I would forget that I was naked. And it worked! But it’s one of the only times that I’ve ever actually really felt comfortable being naked on camera.

The film she’s describing is widely identified as “Black Snake Moan,” the 2006 Craig Brewer movie where she plays Rae, chained up and stripped down for most of the runtime. Ricci never names it in the interview, but the “naked pretty much the entire time” line fits nothing else in her filmography.

Christina Ricci in a long pink spaghetti-strap gown standing in front of a Black Snake Moan movie poster at a red-carpet premiere.
At Chelsea West Cinemas in New York on Feb. 19, 2007, Christina Ricci poses in a magenta gown in front of the ‘Black Snake Moan’ poster at the film’s premiere. Photo by Evan Agostini / Getty Images.

The exchange comes from Variety’s “Actors on Actors” in 2022, where Sweeney laughed and called it a “power move” and Ricci joked about throwing her “five-foot-one stature” around. It sat inside a longer talk about intimacy coordinators, how Sweeney described them as stunt coordinators for sex scenes, and how Ricci once got threatened with a lawsuit for pushing back on a scene, something she says wouldn’t happen on a set today.

Enjoyed this story? Give us a follow on Facebook, and find plenty more on the Thought Catalog website.

Samuel L. Jackson in a white cap and fur-trimmed coat standing next to a Black Snake Moan movie poster at a premiere.
Samuel L. Jackson poses beside the 'Black Snake Moan' poster at the film's New York premiere at Chelsea West Cinemas on February 19, 2007. Photo by Evan Agostini Getty Images.
Close-up of a blonde woman with bangs wearing an off-shoulder grey shirt printed with American and Confederate flags, looking intensely at the camera.
A promotional still from 'Black Snake Moan' featuring a blonde actress in a worn off-shoulder tee with crossed-flags graphics, shot in an outdoor setting.
Sydney Sweeney smiling in a black sheer turtleneck top with gold hoop earrings, posed in front of a Max Mara Los Angeles event backdrop.
Sydney Sweeney flashes a red-lipped smile at the 2019 Women in Film Max Mara Face of the Future event at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles on June 11, 2019. Photo by Frazer Harrison Getty Images.
Christina Ricci in a long pink spaghetti-strap gown standing in front of a Black Snake Moan movie poster at a red-carpet premiere.
At Chelsea West Cinemas in New York on Feb. 19, 2007, Christina Ricci poses in a magenta gown in front of the 'Black Snake Moan' poster at the film's premiere. Photo by Evan Agostini Getty Images.
Three people pose together indoors in front of wooden shutters: a man in a black shirt on the left, a taller man in a purple sweater and beanie in the center, and a woman in a white top and blue scarf on the right.
Mark Mainz Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
Close-up of a smiling young man with short hair and a beard, standing in front of a dark Sundance Film Festival backdrop.
Evan Agostini Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images
1 / 6