Of all the aspects about acting that sound cool, one thing that would likely turn most people off is the idea of having to do sex scenes or even just appear on camera partially clothed. We’ve heard a lot about how women in the profession have dealt with the pressures of looking “perfect,” whether it’s on screen or not, but now 2026 TV schedule star Sam Claflin has opened up about a last-minute topless scene that really impacted him.
What Sam Claflin Said About How His Last-Minute Topless Scene Impacted Him
Sam Claflin has starred in a number of hit films and TV shows over the years, with beloved movies like The Hunger Games franchise, Enola Holmes, Me Before You, and Love, Rosie to his name on the big screen and Peaky Blinders, Daisy Jones & the Six, and his new series, Vanished (with Kaley Cuoco) counted among his television credits. Most would probably agree that he looks like a leading man, but that doesn’t mean that being surprised by a shirtless scene is his cup of tea.
When speaking on the Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast recently, the actor admitted that he’s “incredibly insecure,” especially about his looks, to the point where he believes it’s “a form of body dysmorphia.” He then revealed the surprise shirtless scene that really brought up his insecurities, and said:
I had a topless scene in one of my first movies, but wasn’t told – it wasn’t in the script – and I got told like a week before they were going to take my top off. I was like, ‘S–t, I haven’t been working out. What am I going to do?’
We’ve heard more and more male stars speak about living with anxiety in a more general sense, and those who’ve revealed that they live with depression, but it appears to be quite a bit more rare for them to talk about how baring their bodies on screen has negatively impacted them. He continued:
I think I’ve been massively affected by it, and I think I’d say most guys are, that I’ve spoken to anyway, [to] some degree. But, mine got quite bad.
Claflin went on to explain that his answer has been to do things like skipping meals, working out “doubly hard” and doing other things because he spends his time “overthinking” how he appears to others. I can only guess that this pressure is even worse when you’re cast as “the good-looking guy,” which has certainly been part of his career trajectory.
The star previously admitted that he “regrets” some of his time in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, because he spent the production “people pleasing to the nth degree” due to “imposter syndrome.” Apparently, his tendency to people-please also affects his view of himself, because he did note that he wants people to like him and think he’s attractive (despite his own feelings about his looks), so he has a natural desire to do anything to give people what they want from him. He added:
Yeah, it’s a real struggle. It’s like an everyday struggle, and I think that’s part and parcel of being an actor with the sort of career that I’ve had, specifically…I’m in the process of working through that and being aware of it and trying to embrace it, but it’s a challenge. It is hard.
This is just another example of how you really can’t judge a book by its cover, and can never really know what someone is going through unless you ask them. Here’s hoping that he can at least mostly conquer this particular demon, and give himself a break more often than not.