Christina Ricci in Prozac Nation (a 2001 film unreleased until 2003)
It now seems incredible, but this somehow won our poll as the best nude scene of 2003. Nudity was slumping for a while between the 90s and now. If you look at that 2003 list, there is nothing really memorable in the top ten. I wonder who would win if we ran a do-over.
She’d win again. As you said, not much else going on in ’03, and I was among the many (many) guys waiting for her to take something off. Didn’t learn til after it was shot (and before it was released) that she’d had reduction surgery. Was still waiting to see it, and it was cool and all, but … Man, I was bummed we never got to see them before they got trimmed.
But looking at it in retrospect there’s no longer the excitement of seeing them for the first time. We’ve now seen much more. If you look at the scenes with an objective eye, absent the context of the time, that should not win.
Traveling backwards in time rather than frontwards, I wonder if Leelee would win because she never did any other worthwhile nudity. As I look at the choices and try to find an enduring classic with an objective eye, I’m thinking maybe Mary-Louise Parker or Maria Bello would be my own choice, but I do like me some Leelee.
As for the real-time poll, I don’t remember who I voted for that year, but think it was Chloe Hunter. I don’t even know if she is still alive. She’s been out of the biz for a decade.
I have to tip my hat to her surgeon, as they are near perfect in that scene.