Stephanie Hsu reflects on her character's bold nude scene in "Joy Ride"

Stephanie Hsu opens up about the unexpected full-frontal nude moment involving her character in the film "Joy Ride."

In this raunchy comedy, the 32-year-old actress, known for her Oscar-nominated role in "Everything Everywhere All at Once," portrays Kat, a college friend of Audrey (Ashley Park) who pursues a career as a popular soap opera actress in China. However, Kat's professional life is jeopardized when a photo of her discreet vagina tattoo goes viral.

Hsu recently spoke with Variety, sharing her initial reaction upon discovering that her character would have a close-up nude scene, which was executed with the use of a body double.

"It’s a body double — let me be clear and let my mother know," she stated, humorously. "When I read it in the script I thought it was hilarious and it felt so obvious for the trajectory of that character, but then filming it was a different story."

She further commented, "I was like, 'Oh, my God!' Specifically when I saw the makeup artist do their work on our brave and courageous and body-positive body double. When I saw that I was like, 'Okay, this movie is too much. This movie is actually unhinged.'"

The actress revealed that she had a voice in determining how the final version of the scene would be portrayed in the film.

"It was also really beautiful because when I saw the first cut, the creatives and producers said, 'How do you feel about this shot?'" she recalled.

"The first cut didn’t feel super great to me, and they invited me into the editing suite and we kind of built that moment together in a way that felt that it wasn’t the butt of the joke, but actually truly hilarious," she added. "I’m really proud of where we landed on that."

Hsu spoke to Rolling Stone about the scene, disclosing that there was an "audition process" to find a suitable body double.

"It was very important that we chose someone who was comfortable in their skin, because that is a very courageous and exposing act. We chose this woman who was very sex-positive and awesome," she shared.

She added, "When I had first seen the rough cut, I had a really hard time with that scene and felt really vulnerable and nervous for all the memes of my face with the tattoo. I expressed that to [director] Adele [Lim] and Point Grey, and they were really kind."

Ultimately, they worked on refining the timing of the scene, ensuring it was "a quick reveal without lingering on it so long that it started to feel like the butt of the joke...."

"Joy Ride," featuring Stephanie Hsu alongside Sherry Cola and Sabrina Wu, is currently playing in theaters.