Alison Brie knew from one of her first auditions for “GLOW” that nudity was part of the show — and she learned to be fine with that.
“Very early on in auditioning it was a case of, ‘Don’t come to any more auditions unless you’re comfortable with nudity, because it is a part of the show.’ It was a deal-breaker, for sure. At that time, I just wanted to be on the show so much that I really didn’t care,” she continued, “It was important that the show be a realistic portrayal of life in the way people live and the way they have sex. And also that our show be about every aspect of women’s bodies, and women not being ashamed of their bodies,”
https://youtu.be/N7OTkQnxXmM
Alison Brie has been in the public eye for ten years now—initially attracting attention with her recurring role in Mad Men, later coming into her own with a major part in Community, then lending her voice to Netflix’s animated series Bojack Horseman.
Despite the quick advancement of her career, there’s something the 34-year-old L.A. native thought she’d never do for her work: nudity.
So when it came to audition for the lead role in Netflix’s ‘80s-set dramedy GLOW, she was forced to rethink her position.
“Very early on in auditioning it was a case of, ‘Don’t come to any more auditions unless you’re comfortable with nudity, because it is a part of the show,’” Brie told Net-a-Porter’s The Edit. “It was a deal-breaker, for sure,” she continued. “At that time, I just wanted to be on the show so much that I really didn’t care.”
According to Brie, her stance changed when she realized that the nudity on the series was neither gratuitous nor overly sexualized.
“It was important that the show be a realistic portrayal of life in the way people live and the way they have sex,” Alison shared. “And also that our show be about every aspect of women’s bodies, and women not being ashamed of their bodies. We’re not being shot in a way that’s over-sexualizing us, or exploiting us. I found it very freeing and empowering, and I’m so glad that I did it.”
In fact, it wasn’t just her feelings toward on-screen nudity that changed. Brie says her feelings toward her body in general were affected by the intense fitness routines she and the cast followed.
“It really changed the way I felt about my body. It felt so empowering and exciting, and it proved that we were capable of so much more than we expected. GLOW is such a body-positive show; all of the women on it feel really comfortable in their bodies, and that is such a healthy thing to be surrounded by.”
Brie, who previously starred on “Mad Men” and “Community,” was just nominated for both a Golden Globe and SAG award for her portrayal of Ruth Wilder on “GLOW.”
“We’re not being shot in a way that’s over-sexualizing us, or exploiting us. I found it very freeing and empowering, and I’m so glad that I did it,” she told The Edit.
Not only did the nudity in the series make Brie feel empowered — but working out and learning to use her body in a different way also added to the experience.
[Aug 2017]