Anyone who’s a fan of The Mentalist and unzips their fly every time Teresa Lisbon gets screen time has probably tried to look for pictures or footage of Robin Tunney naked at least a few dozen times. Now, while I’m not suggesting that such material impossible to find, once you sift out all of the fakes, you might find yourself slightly disappointed in what’s left behind. Even though there are more than a handful of films with Robin Tunney nude scenes in them, for some reason, these scenes are rarely particularly graphic.
I’m not going through the full list of Robin Tunney nude scenes in detail, but there are three (or two-and-a-half) honorable mentions to touch on. Other than Supernova, the most potentially graphic nude scene from the Chicago-born actress is from 2006’s Open Window, in which she takes off a bathrobe in well-lit room as the camera pans up and down her completely naked body while she is getting into a bathtub and for a little bit after. The catch: the camera is largely behind her. If you’re an ass man, you can fap yourself silly to it, and if you like sideboob, there’s some pretty good titty shots in it. Unfortunately, that’s about where it ends.
The next mention is for the wholesome family Christmas film End of Days, which, going by year of release, is responsible for the earliest Robin Tunney nude scenes to hit public eyes. They’re quite tame, with one showing sideboob for not much more than a second and the other flashing a nip for not even that long. Nonetheless, people who loved The Craft when it came out probably took it as permission to release three years of pent up sexual frustration. The other mention is for Dream On – HBO’s version of Friends. Robin Tunney appeared in an episode of it in 1993, and many sites report this as her first nude scene. I watched it to confirm, and unless I blinked through a literal blink-and-you-miss it moment, I do not believe this to be the case. There is one shot where you’re either seeing shadow or the very edge of her left areola, but if that’s what everyone is referring to, then they’ve somehow managed to make the rest of the actress’ portfolio of tame nude scenes look like hardcore pornography by comparison.
As for Supernova, it basically opens with a Robin Tunney sex scene. Considering the combination of the timing and the fact that this is the first of four scenes in which Robin appears nude, I’m tempted to fall victim to my cynical tendencies and say that it’s almost like the filmmakers knew exactly what they were doing and were trying to sell tickets and DVDs of the movie on the basis of seeing her naked like we had never seen her before. I’m not complaining. It worked for me. Unfortunately, it didn’t help the film’s reception, with even original director Walter Hill so dismayed by the many executive changes, includes ones done by famed director Francis Ford Coppola, nor did it save it from an abysmal performance at the box office.
But hey, we got to see Robin Tunney topless a lot, including one scene where the mixed gender crew all get naked to prepare for a jump and then horse around a bit while completely nude. So no bad news, right? Wrong. We got cheated once again. The way the picture was cropped for most releases – including, to my knowledge, all full HD releases – excludes literally most of the nudity from Robin Tunney. Although funnily enough, there is one sex scene that is supposed to be of Angela Bassett’s character, but is actually a body double, and the body double is none other than Robin Tunney herself in digital blackface. And truth remains stranger than fiction. Before you ask, Angela Bassett’s other nude scene in the film is a body double as well, though I have yet to confirm whether that’s another erotic minstrel show performance or not. What I can confirm is that we get to see Robin Tunney naked in Supernova a lot, and it is glorious.
