Willem Dafoe's Antichrist Nude Scenes Required A Body Double To Fix A Big Problem
When it comes to movies that are too disturbing to finish, Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist" is up there with the most challenging of the bunch. Starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple mourning the loss of their child, the film deals with harrowing subject matter like marital breakdown, grief, and horrors that are beyond transgressive. "Antichrist" also boasts some notable nude scenes, with Dafoe's naked moments presenting a different type of challenge for Von Trier.
"[He] has an enormous d**k," Von Trier told The Boston Phoenix. "We had to take those scenes out of the film. We had a stand-in for him because we had to take the scenes out with his own d**k."
Von Trier believes that Dafoe's impressive member would have confused people, which is why the filmmakers opted to leave it out of the movie. However, there might be another reason behind the decision to bring in a substitute actor for the nude scenes.
Antichrist's sex scenes are legit, so body doubles were necessary
"Antichrist" features sex scenes that are actually real, so it's understandable why the main actors required body doubles for the erotic sequences. Willem Dafoe noted that both he and Charlotte Gainsbourg are married in real life. As such, having them engage in unsimulated coitus could have added their names to the list of actors whose nude scenes got them in trouble in real life.
"Lars used a porn actor for those scenes. It was a good decision because, if it was me, then that's all that people would talk about," Dafoe told Dazed. "Obviously Lars wants the characters to have genitals, but it would become a distraction: 'Oh, they really had sex!' If he had asked me to do it, I don't know what I would have said."
The issue with Dafoe's confusing genitalia wasn't the only challenging behind-the-scenes scenario the cast and crew faced while making the film. The actor claimed that "Antichrist" had an evil feeling on the set, so it probably wasn't the most ideal environment for showing his private parts to the rest of the world.