The Wall Street Journal - Speakeasy | 28 January 2014   

by Clemens Bomsdorf   

Lars von Trier's new movie "Nymphomaniac" - a controversial Danish film set to hit the U.S. in the spring - carries the familiar line in the credits stating that no animal was harmed during shooting of the movie. But there is another disclosure: Professional actors were replaced by several body doubles for the more explicit sex scenes.

Naked stand-ins aren't rare in the movie business, but for a racy movie like "Nymphomaniac," they are akin to the indispensable stuntmen who carry the most intense scenes in action flicks. For Elvira Friis, a Danish adult film actor in her late 20s, taking the role of body double for Stacy Martin and Charlotte Gainsbourg, even opened the door to having her mother finally be comfortable to talk about her daughter's job.

"My mom never speaks with her friends about what I am doing, but she straight away told her friend that I am playing in a von Trier movie," Friis said during an interview in her Copenhagen apartment shortly after "Nymphomaniac" started showing in Europe.

"Nymphomaniac" has become one of the most buzzed-about foreign films in some time, and...