Barry Keoghan from Saltburn talks about full nudity

Barry Keoghan‘s reservations about full frontal nudity in Salt burn quickly disappeared after the cameras started rolling on the scene where he dances naked.

“At first it was about not having any clothes on. I’m a bit, ehhh,” Keoghan, 31, said Entertainment weekly in an interview published on Friday, November 17. “But after take one I was ready to go. I thought, ‘Let’s go again. Let’s go again.’ You kind of forget about it because it creates such a comfortable environment, and it gives you the freedom to say, “Okay, this is about the story now.”

He called choreographer Polly Bennettwho also cooperated Elvis, by making sure he felt comfortable. “By the way, I didn’t know I could dance like that. I thought, ‘Wow. Where did those things come from?’ Do you know what I mean?” the Banshees of Inisherin actor added.

Keoghan always understood why it was important for his character, Oliver, to undress. “It’s so recognizable, right? Let’s be honest. Dancing in your own space and being silly, knowing no one is watching, and moving your body in any way you can. We are at our truest and rawest when we are naked,” he shared Fashion.

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He continued, “When we’re alone, that facade falls away. We get a glimpse of Oliver at his true point. It’s also a bit of a power issue. Then I think, ‘Oh, s–t, what happens next?’ It’s just down. He has to find something else now because he has basically reached the pinnacle. Where do you go from there?

Ultimately the scene was filmed 11 times, Salt burn director Emerald Green Fennel revealed. “They were all very beautiful,” she said Variety. “It’s a pretty complicated and technical camera. He was often extremely patient because there was a lot of naked dancing. Take number seven was technically perfect. You could hear everyone’s overjoyed reaction, but I had to say “sorry” because it lacked whatever it was that made Oliver such a somewhat human messiness. So we had to do it four more times.”

Keoghan joked, “I think we had it on the fourth take, but people just wanted to keep watching me dance.”

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While you’re talking to EWFennell, 38, was delighted with Keoghan’s determination to get the scene just right. “Barry did it four more times, until the one you see, who has a total evil zest for life that is impossible not to agree with,” she said.

Salt burn follows Oliver (Keoghan), a scholarship student at Oxford University in 2006, who meets Felix (Jacob Elordi), a wealthy and popular classmate. After they become friends, Felix invites Oliver to stay at his family’s estate called Saltburn during the summer holidays. As he gets closer to the eccentric family of Felix (played by Rosamund Snoek, Richard E. Grant And Alison Oliver), Oliver is determined to find a way to continue living the good life.

Salt burn is now in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. On Friday, November 22, the film will be expanded to theaters around the world.