Gershon Turned Down Friday the 13th Part 2 Over Topless Scene

Gina Gershon, the actress known for her roles in films like Showgirls, has disclosed that she declined a lead role in the 1981 horror sequel Friday the 13th Part 2 because it required an exploitative topless scene just before her character's death.

In her recently published memoir, AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs, Gershon recounts the early-career opportunity that excited her at first. She described reading the script and feeling immediate discomfort with the scene, in which her character would remove her top moments before being killed by a stake through the heart, with blood dripping down her torso. "At the time, those kinds of slasher movies always had girls dying with their breasts exposed," she wrote. "That seemed pretty lame to me, exploitation 101."

Gershon, then a young aspiring actor, sought guidance from her father, expecting possible disapproval. Instead, he offered empowering support. "It's your body. If you're comfortable with it, I'm comfortable with it," he told her. This response, as she reflected in interviews, reinforced her ability to make her own choices without family rebellion. "I was really lucky that I had a father who...