Why Gina Gershon Walked Away From Friday the 13th: She Drew the Line at an Exploitative Topless Scene

Gina Gershon just explained why she bailed on a famous slasher sequel back in the day, and the reason is refreshingly simple: the script wanted more of her body than it wanted of her character.

The horror job she walked away from

While promoting her new memoir, AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs, Gershon told Fox News Digital (in a piece published Sunday, March 29) that she turned down the lead in Friday the 13th Part 2. She said she is not anti-nudity at all — she grew up on European movies — but only when it actually serves the character and the story. In this case, the movie wanted the character to lose her top right before getting killed. To her, that felt exploitative and, frankly, silly.

Before passing, she ran it by her dad, Stan Gershon, expecting a classic parental veto. Instead, she got this:

'It is your body. If you are comfortable with it, I am comfortable with it.'

That vote of confidence apparently stuck. Gershon adds in the book that her father died young, but in the 19 years she had with him, he taught her to trust her own choices.

The same boundary on Showgirls

Gershon is best known to many for playing Cristal Connors in Paul Verhoeven's 1995 cult favorite Showgirls. In the memoir, she says she and Verhoeven clashed at times — not over huge creative battles, but small, silly stuff that piled up. One day, she writes, he walked into her trailer and pitched the idea that her character should expose herself in that day's scene. She calmly asked why that would make sense and countered with an intentionally over-the-top alternative to make the point. According to Gershon, he backed out of the trailer looking at her like she was nuts and did not bring it up again. A spokesperson for Verhoeven told the outlet he has not read the memoir and had no comment.

What her book is (and is not)

Gershon, now 63, told Interview magazine she did not write this as a how-to guide for life. It is just her path, told her way. She also says she thinks of herself as a storyteller more than a capital-W Writer, and she specifically did not want to churn out a Showgirls or general showbiz tell-all. Those stories can be fun, but for her, a gossip-dump would feel gross.

Bottom line: whether it was a slasher sequel asking for a gratuitous topless death scene or a director testing the limits on a set, Gershon has been consistent about one thing — if the moment does not serve the character, she is not interested.