Barry Keoghan Confirms What We Knew About His Nude Scene in Saltburn

Sometimes the movie business is all about proving yourself and that is not limited to your abilities as an actor. There are moments in certain films that need to be confirmed by the masses so they can sleep at night and one of those very moments involves Barry Keoghan in a revealing scene for the actor in 2023’s Saltburn. During the film’s final scene, the actor dances around fully nude to Sophie Ellis’ “Murder on the Dancefloor,” and the question on the minds of many as they were watching it was whether he was giving us “the real Keoghan.“

During an appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast, the actor made it clear that every bit of him that you see during his nude dancing moment is all real. Keoghan addressed the naked truth when Theroux said, “Speculation was that your willy had been enhanced,” and while the actor jokingly responded with, “That wasn’t me, by the way,” he went on to say, “No, I’m playing. Of course it was me,” before elaborating on the fact that doing the scene was no big deal for him.

“Nah, who said that? Wow! It was all me. It was a thing I didn’t really bat an eyelid to. I would bat an eyelid if it didn’t fit the story. I remember me and Emerald having chats. It started off with my clothes, she was like, ‘We just need to make it a bit more ownership. He’s kind of got this mansion, it’s his space. When you have that space, we all do at home, we walk around naked because we’re comfy and this is our environment.’ It’s trying to get that across.”

Saltburn Was Full of Surprising Moments

Saltburn was a series of OMG moments that went viral when the film was released. From questionable drinking of fluids out of the bathtub to having one’s way on top of a grave, Keoghan is more than committed to his role. By the time he had to get naked and dance around naked in a mansion, maybe it felt like a walk in the park after doing all the other stuff. All jokes aside, despite the movie becoming talked about for those moments, it went a long way to convey the unstable nature of Keoghan’s character and completely sold what the movie was selling.

Written and directed by Emerald Fennell, Saltburn is set in Oxford and focuses on a student named Oliver (Keoghan), who becomes dangerously obsessed and fixated with a popular athletic student named Felix (Jacob Elordi). Not knowing how enamored Oliver is with him, Felix ends up inviting him to spend the summer at his family’s estate, where more drama begins to unravel. The film also stars Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe and Carey Mulligan.

The film scored positive reviews from critics, securing a 72% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while Keoghan’s performance was also universally praised. The actor was ultimately nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. The movie was also financially successful, grossing $21.1 million worldwide before going on to become one of the most-streamed films on Amazon Prime Video.

“Murder on the Dancefloor” also had a moment following the release of Saltburn. The song was released in 2001, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart, but due to the film and that scene, it shot back up to number two in the UK and hit number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., its first showing there. As 2024 was upon us on New Year’s Eve, the song hit 1.5 million streams, which means Sophie Ellis-Bextor has Saltburn to thank for that and Keoghan doing the full monty in the name of cinema.

Release Date

November 24, 2023

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