Like some of the night’s Best Picture honorees, the 96th Academy Awards wasn’t without its share of excessive nudity.
In one of the night’s most talked-about bits, wrestler-turned-actor John Cena took the stage to present the award for Best Costume Design seemingly in the buff.
Moments earlier, Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel jokingly prodded Cena to run naked across the stage, à la the streaker who interrupted the 46th Academy Awards in 1974. Cena, however, pretended to be rather hesitant to follow through and instead inched toward the microphone holding only an envelope over his crotch.
“Costumes, they are so important,” Cena ultimately announced to the crowd. “Maybe the most important thing there is.”
The moment elicited plenty of laughter inside the Dolby Theater, thanks in no small part to Cena’s commitment to the bit. But in reality, Cena wasn’t exactly nude — and he didn’t appear so anxious, either. In backstage photos shared on Instagram, Cena can be seen wearing a flesh-toned garment that covered his most private parts.
On stage, Cena was also quickly covered up before the category’s winner was announced, with several production assistants running out to place a toga on his body before the lights went back up, video shared on social media shows.
It’s also worth noting that Cena, 46, hasn’t exactly shied away from showing some skin in his earlier work, having spent most of his wrestling career in nothing but jean shorts. He’s also been partially nude in 2018’s “Blockers,” Max’s “Peacemaker” series, and 2015’s “Trainwreck,” where he says he learned to embrace the awkwardness.
“I think the more comfortable you can be with it, the more you lose yourself in the thing,” he once told Howard Stern of his “Trainwreck” sex scene. “Because I thought that scene is just so great.”