Bill Nighy fears being naked on screen & in life

June 2024 · 4 minute read

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There’s a new film coming out that looks incredible. The Boat That Rocked was directed by Richard Curtis (Love Actually) and stars Rhys Ifans, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy and Emma Thompson. As you could imagine, the press for the film is gearing up, and we’ve already heard some interesting stuff from Rhys Ifans. Now it’s Bill Nighy’s turn.

If you don’t know Nighy, you really should. He’s hysterical and wonderful and crazy-talented. His most famous roles are probably as the Keith Richards-esque aging rock star on the comeback trail in Love Actually, and perhaps you will recognize his voice and CGI work from playing Davy Jones in the last two Pirates of the Caribbean films. If you’re interested, he’s also really, really great in Notes On a Scandal and the HBO film The Girl In the Cafe.

He had a 27-year relationship with actress Diana Quick, but he’s sort of single now, according to his own statements and several press accounts. He and Diana are still good friends – she even showed up at The Boat That Rocked London premiere.

Nighy’s single status is obviously on his mind, because I found two different interviews where he talks about his fixation with being naked and dating in general. First, from The Daily Mail, Nighy tells their gossip guy “Mandrake” his advice to young men: keep your clothes on. Wonderful.

Bill Nighy told me at the premiere of his new film The Boat That Rocked how a great many young and attractive women come up to him these days.

The 59-year-old actor added glumly that mostly they want to tell him how their mothers like him. Currently single, he has one piece of advice for other older men about how to go about the business of dating: keep your clothes on.

“The thing is only give the girls a bit of top on the first date – one or two shirt buttons undone, no more than that,” he said, sagely. “If you start to show them too much of your body too early on, take it from me, you will never see hide nor hair of them again.”

From The Telegraph

Bill seems to be telling young men not to give away the milk, or the ladies won’t buy the… bull? That can’t be right. But there’s still another interview where Bill is strangely preoccupied with being naked, this time on film. PR Inside has more:

British actor Bill Nighy has never filmed a sex scene for a movie – because he is too embarrassed by his body to ever strip off on camera.

The 59-year-old star has enjoyed a long and varied career, beginning in theatre and going on to land high profile roles in movies including the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and 2003’s Love Actually.

But Nighy admits he has always shied away from roles as the romantic lead – as he would never be brave enough to bare all for cinema audiences.

He says, “I’m too shy and I didn’t want to take my top off, as I’ve got a difficult body. I didn’t want to show anyone as I knew that when it got around to it, I was dead in the water (his body was not in shape), and if a future Mrs Nighy was out there I would be single for the rest of my life.”

[From PR Inside]

Usually I’m so focused on men like Gerard Butler and Ewan McGregor, I sometimes miss out on the lovely “older” men. Plenty of women would love to be “the future Mrs. Nighy”. I imagine there would be a lot of laughing, and not a lot of working out.

I don’t even think Bill Nighy’s body is really “difficult”. He’s thin and lanky, which a lot of women like (me!). I’d love for Nighy to play a romantic lead in which he took off his clothes. I’m sure he has a lot of fans who would also like to see more of him.

Here’s Bill Nighy and Diana Quick at the premiere of ‘The Boat That Rocked’ in London on Monday. Images thanks to WENN .

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