Tom Hiddleston wants more male nudity in films

British actor Tom Hiddleston says he had an ulterior motive for agreeing to bare his bum in his new film, Crimson Peak – he was taking a pants-free stand against the shocking lack of male nudity in Hollywood films.

Hiddleston, who stars alongside Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain in the Guillermo del Toro-directed new film, said during an interview with E! that he finds it “unfair” there’s more female than male nudity in films:

“It’s so often in movies that women are more naked than men and that’s unfair. We wanted to sort of redress the balance. I didn’t have a problem with the nakedness because I felt that there’s always been a strain of sexuality in Gothic romance as much as there has been the fear of death and the threat of violence. It’s a very violent film and I felt like we needed to balance that. So if we’re going to bring up the violence we needed to bring up the sense of sexuality.”

Of course, Hiddleston isn’t the first to raise this point: only last month we brought you news of Kevin Bacon’s one-man response to the #freethenipple movement, in which he encouraged his fellow Hollywood actors to drop trou and #FreeTheBacon. Earlier this year, Queer As Folk / Cucumber creator Russell T. Davies spoke out, saying there isn’t enough male nudity on television.

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