Kyle MacLachlan shut down Showgirls nude scene as director wanted ‘giant erection’
Kyle MacLachlan in Showgirls (Carolco Pictures)
Kyle MacLachlan says Showgirls director Paul Verhoeven wanted him to film a full-frontal nude shot, and even suggested they could “matte one in” if needed.
The 67-year-old actor recounts the moment in his memoir Fiction Selves, describing a night shoot for the film’s pool scene that veered into “absurd territory a few times that night… including when Paul suggests that I first walk out onto the patio full frontal.” The extract was shared by Entertainment Weekly.
Desperate Housewives icon MacLachlan writes that Verhoeven pitched the idea in blunt terms: “‘Kyle,’ he says, ‘when you walk across the pool deck and we shoot you here and you have a giant erection and you walk into the pool and we see this.’”
He says he shut it down immediately. “‘Hold on a second,’ I say, snapping to attention. ‘Paul, I’m sorry, you can’t shoot me from the front,’” MacLachlan writes, before adding: “‘Ah no,’ I say. ‘I’m not going to do that.’”
In the book, MacLachlan says Verhoeven then floated a workaround. “‘Listen… it’s not a problem if you can’t get an erection; we can matte one in,’ he says, not a trace of irony. ‘We can paint one any size you want.’”
How the Showgirls pool scene was filmed
MacLachlan says the scene ultimately went ahead without the front-facing shot. “He shoots me from behind, thank the lord,” he recalls.
He also addresses a long-running rumour about what viewers actually see on screen, insisting it was not a stand-in: “That is my backside. And I make sure that’s all it is. Film is forever.”
Released in 1995, Showgirls is notorious for its heavy nudity and was widely panned on arrival, but has since been reclaimed by many viewers as a camp classic. MacLachlan played club boss Zack Carey opposite Elizabeth Berkley’s Nomi Malone.
MacLachlan once called Showgirls a ‘pretty big embarrassment’
In a GQ interview clip from 2018, MacLachlan said that after watching the film he thought: “I don’t know what to say about this movie. I don’t think I can talk about this movie,” adding that he did not do any press for it.
He also described it as a “pretty big embarrassment” at the time, even as the film later found a second life with audiences.
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