Kyle MacLachlan says he rejected a full-frontal nude shot that Paul Verhoeven proposed while filming Showgirls, eventually invoking his contract when the director continued pressing the idea.
“I stay congenial, despite the insane suggestion,” MacLachlan writes in his new memoir, Fictional Selves, while recalling the disagreement. He says the discussion ended only after he made clear that the proposed shot fell outside what he had agreed to do.
MacLachlan played Zack Carey, the Las Vegas entertainment director who becomes involved with Elizabeth Berkley’s Nomi Malone in Verhoeven’s 1995 drama. The movie received an NC-17 rating and became notorious after its original release before developing a much longer life as a cult favorite.
Fictional Selves, published by Crown on Sept. 29, runs 320 pages and traces MacLachlan’s four decades in film and television, including his collaborations with David Lynch and the career choices that did not turn out as he expected.
MacLachlan Used His Contract to End the Full-Frontal Discussion
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The disagreement happened during the elaborate pool sequence between Zack and Nomi near the end of production. MacLachlan recalls Verhoeven and cinematographer Jost Vacano working in the water during a long night of filming when the director proposed shooting him walking across the pool deck from the front.
MacLachlan rejected the idea and held his ground as Verhoeven discussed ways the shot might still work, including altering the image in post-production. He insisted that the scene be filmed from behind, as his contract allowed.
“Sorry, Paul,” MacLachlan remembers telling him as his heart began racing over the potential confrontation. “You can shoot me from the back walking to the pool.”
MacLachlan says he referred Verhoeven to his contract when the director continued pushing. The issue was dropped, and the finished movie shows Zack walking toward the pool from behind. MacLachlan also dismisses a piece of lore surrounding the shot, writing that the rear view belongs to him rather than a body double.
Watching the Finished Pool Scene Gave Him ‘Sheer Horror’
MacLachlan revisited the sequence during a Sept. 28 book event at Symphony Space in New York, where Ethan Hawke moderated a conversation about Fictional Selves. A fan asked whether he had ever filmed something that felt completely different once he saw the finished result.
“Yeah, the scene in the pool in Showgirls,” MacLachlan answered, drawing laughter from the audience. When Hawke imagined what it must have been like to sit through that first screening, MacLachlan summed up his reaction as “sheer horror.” PEOPLE reported that he also described watching the film as genuinely painful.
His expectations had been very different while making it. MacLachlan admired Verhoeven’s work on films including RoboCop and Basic Instinct and saw Zack as an opportunity to move away from his clean-cut screen image by playing someone darker.
During a 2018 GQ career retrospective, MacLachlan remembered reading the script as sexy and edgy and enjoying the actual shoot. His reaction changed when he finally watched the movie and realized it was not what he thought they had been making.
MacLachlan decided not to participate in the film’s publicity campaign because he did not know how to discuss what he had seen. He later acknowledged that refusing to promote the movie did not please the studio’s publicity department and said the release hurt his career.
MacLachlan Still Won’t Call ‘Showgirls’ a Good Movie
The film’s reputation changed considerably after its initial critical and commercial reception. Midnight screenings, home video and later reassessments turned Showgirls into a cult fixture, even as arguments continued over whether audiences were celebrating the movie, laughing at it or doing a little of both.
MacLachlan told the Los Angeles Times ahead of his memoir’s release that he enjoys the fact that the movie has endured, but he has not joined its most enthusiastic defenders.
“I’ll still argue with anyone that [says] it’s a good movie,” he said. “It’s not a good movie, but it’s definitely an appreciated movie, and that is kind of where I leave it.”