Midsommar star Jack Reynor reveals why he wanted to go fully nude in one of the film's most bizarre scenes

Horror movie stars Reynor and Florence Pugh as a couple who journey to a remote Swedish village for a seemingly innocent midsummer festival, which soon descends into a ritualistic nightmare

Midsommar star Jack Reynor has revealed that it was his idea to go fully nude in one of the most intense and bizarre scenes of the film.

Reynor stars as Christian, the boyfriend of Florence Pugh’s character Dani, in the second feature film by Hereditary director Ari Aster.

The movie follows a group of friends who journey to a remote Swedish village for a seemingly innocent midsummer festival, which soon descends into a ritualistic nightmare.

In arguably the most disturbing moment of the film, a drugged Christian is forced to participate in a sex ritual and spends a considerable amount of time onscreen nude.

Speaking to Thrillist, Reynor said it took about two weeks to shoot: “Every day, going to work and shooting something that is incredibly humiliating and upsetting personally and thinking about yourself in the context of it and trying to put yourself in the position of it...it was hard-core,” he said. “Really hard-core.”

He said he saw it as a way to restore some balance by submitting himself to what women in Hollywood have endured for decades.

“There are so many scenes of sexual violence towards women in films that feature full-frontal nudity that they have to deal with,” he said. “I felt that this was an opportunity for that to be turned on its head. I thought it was important for the audience to see this character coming out as vulnerable and as humiliated as possible.”

In a separate interview he told the Hollywood Reporter: “He suffers this very humiliating and exposing fate, and as a cinephile, I’ve really only ever seen that happening to female characters in the horror genre… especially in a sexual context."

“So, it was an opportunity to be part of something that flipped that on its head, and I really wanted to engage with the experience of it by advocating for as much full-frontal nudity as possible.”

“I didn’t have to do anything like Jack’s scene,” Pugh told Vanity Fair. “We all felt for him, and for Isabelle, and for all the women who were around in that scene. It’s hard. It’s so awkward.”

Read our interview with Midsommar star Will Poulter here.