Fifty Shades of Grey and its subsequent sequels are among Netflix’s notable sexually explicit films right now. I was watching the third movie recently and I was reminded of the fervor online when series lead Jamie Dornan didn’t go full-frontal nude. So I sleuthed around to answer the question fans may still be wondering: Was the Christian Grey actor really going to be paid more to show off his man parts in the trilogy?
The Full-Frontal Nudity Rumor And What Really Happened
Thank goodness I wasn’t the only one wondering about this. Back in the day, a rumor ran around the Fifty Shades cast would be paid more to go fully nude. Like significantly more. I’m talking allegedly getting paid $1.5 million more to see Christian Grey in full glory. This would have meant Jamie Dornan would have left the dreaded “wee bag” in the dressing room on at least one particular day of filming, but despite rumors coming out ahead of not just Fifty Shades of Grey but also Fifty Shades Freed, it never happened. Here’s why.
When asked about the prospect, the actor (who is funny in real life and not just in Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar) joked the $1.5 million that was listed was actually quite low. But then he revealed the real truth about the rumors, telling Elle:
It was $30 million—to show one testicle. [Laughs] No, that whole thing with offering more money to go nude? That didn’t happen.
There’s a reason the Fifty Shades movies never took the extra step cut out scenes and be less graphic than E.L. James novels. They “wanted to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.”
Why Jamie Dornan And Dakota Johnson Only Got Semi-Nude For Fifty Shades
Speaking further on the subject, the actor got candid about his memories from the time filming as Christian Grey. He spoke about showing off his butt in the process and why he feels it makes sense the movies never took things a step further.
I don’t know if I said I wouldn’t. You see my arse quite a lot. That doesn’t really bother me. You see a lot of Dakota’s tits. I would show my tits if I had them. I just thought, We don’t need to be flashing the rest if it’s not essential to the story. We’re not making porn as much as people think we are.
It’s worth pointing out, too, that at the time the first movie was coming together, Fifty Shades of Grey was largely filming in order to avoid an NC-17 rating. Ultimately that first movie and its subsequent sequels would be Rated R by the MPAA. At the time, Jamie Dornan also confirmed there were procedures in place to avoid full frontal, noting in the same interview years ago that his contract avoided it, though that doesn’t necessarily mean he was opposed to the idea. Contractually, it just wasn’t going to happen.
There were contracts in place that said that viewers wouldn’t be seeing my, umm [ todger]. Yeah, my todger.
So, if you’ve been operating off the assumption Jamie Dornan turned down money to appear fully nude in the Fifty Shades movies, it’s a little more complicated then that. Still, who knows if they would have made different choices about nudity if all of these considerations hadn’t been in place?