Matt Damon leaves little to the imagination in HBO’s Behind the Candelabra. In the just-released biopic, the 42-year-old actor plays Liberace‘s one-time lover Scott Thorson. To capture the opulence of their life together in the ’70s, Damon wears two bedazzled speedos in the film. He also bares his bum on several occasions, as does costar Michael Douglas, who plays the late piano-playing legend.
Damon warned reporters about his nude scenes during a press conference May 21, just five days before the movie premiered on the cable network. “It will be jarring,” he said of his butt. “This is not something you can un-see. So you’re all welcome to look. But you cannot un-ring that bell. It will be seared into your memory.”
Director Steven Soderbergh joked that Damon was actually quite proud of his buff body and barely-there wardrobe. “When Matt told me the story about his Brazilian spray tan, I felt the world really needed to see this,” he said during the Cannes Film Festival. “So I was looking for opportunities. And we found them.”
Soderbergh added, “Give the people what they want and they will show up!”
In fact, it was Damon’s idea to add more nudity to the script. “I said, ‘What if at the end of the scene, I drop the robe and get into bed?'” the Massachusetts native recalled. “And Steven just looked at me for a long time and said, ‘Oh I know where to put the camera.’ I said, ‘It’s the wrongest thing you have ever seen.'”