TV & Movies
Yes, Barry Keoghan Went Totally Nude In That Saltburn Scene
Thought that was a prosthetic? Think again...
Warning: Spoilers for Saltburn ahead. Emerald Fennell’s second feature film, Saltburn, has certainly got people talking. The film has already earned a reputation for being one of the year’s most shocking trips to the theater. Now that it’s streaming on Amazon Prime, it has become one of the most daring picks for family movie night over the holiday season.
Of all of the shocks in Saltburn, the moment that has perhaps generated the most discourse is the final scene. In a three-minute-long single shot, Barry Keoghan’s Oliver strips down and dances through the Saltburn manor house as “Murder on the Dancefloor” by Sophie Ellis-Bextor blares.
Think Hugh Grant’s dance in Love, Actually, but make it sinister and weird — and very, very naked.
It’s an appropriately bold way to end a film that is filled with both visual and thematic shocks. But naturally, what got us all talking wasn’t the symbolism or the hidden meaning — it was the nudity.
As one viewer tweeted, “I would love to know why there’s a prosthetic credit in Saltburn.”
Well, fans finally have an answer — and reader, it was all real.
“After Take One, I Was Ready To Go”
Set in the early 2000s, Saltburn follows Oliver, a young Oxford student who befriends a charismatic classmate, Felix (Jacob Elordi). After getting an invite to stay at his family estate, Saltburn, for the summer, Oliver weasels his way into the family, flirting with Felix’s sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver), and charming his mother, Elspeth, (Rosamund Pike), before he kills them off one by one and takes over their rambling country estate.
As Keoghan told Entertainment Weekly, his naked dance in the final scene serves as a jubilant celebration. “It’s ownership,” he said, describing the scene. “This is my place. It’s full confidence in, ‘I can do what I want in this manor. I can strip to my barest and waltz around because this is mine.’ Yeah... it was fun.”
He went on to discuss how filming the scene was a little intimidating, because, and here’s the info we’ve all been waiting for, it was all him — no prosthetic.
“The initial thing was about me having no clothes on. I’m a bit, ehhh,” he said. “But after take one, I was ready to go. I was like, ‘Let’s go again. Let's go again.’ You kind of forget, because there’s such a comfortable environment created, and it gives you that license to go, ‘All right, this is about the story now.’”
And What About That Grave Scene?
Ok, so the final scene was, apparently, au naturale. And as it turns out, the infamous grave scene in which Oliver strips down and grinds against Felix’s grave was also shot sans prosthetics.
Why? Well, as the actor told Variety, he actually improvised the entire thing on the day.
“Emerald is so good about creating that safe environment,” he said. “Even the grave scene, I was like, ‘Can I have a closed set? I’d like to try something.’ On paper, he wasn’t written to do that. But I wanted to see what actually happened, where I would take it. I wanted to be confused and let my body lead the way. What am I doing? How can I get closer? It’s trying to find that new level of obsession.”
It’s clear that Keoghan could not have been more committed to his role — based on the news about his nude scenes, he quite literally gave us everything.
