Katherine Waterston Gets Totally Naked, Then Violently Spanked By Joaquin Phoenix In ‘Inherent Vice’ [Video]

Katherine Waterston says getting fully naked on screen may make her feel vulnerable; however, it’s all part of acting. Waterston is no stranger to acting. Katherine grew up watching her father’s career blossom.

For the last 20 years, her father, Sam Waterston, has been a star of the television series Law and Order. He also acted in movies, like The Killing Fields, The Great Gatsby, The Man in the Moon, and Much Ado About Nothing, to name a few.

New York Daily News reports how Katherine recalls how watching her father’s lead performance in a 1973 film of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing inspired her when she was a child.

“We had the VHS of it when we were a kid, and my sister and I watched it incessantly and knew all the parts. A lot of the other films he was making at the time were not really age appropriate, like The Killing Fields and Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

For ten years, the 34-year-old has assembled a career showing great potential with Broadway and Off-Broadway performances, such as Bachelorette and Kindness. Waterston also acted in modest indie films, like The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby and The Babysitters.

In her most recent film Inherent Vice, Katherine Waterston is completely nude while she slides onto Joaquin Phoenix’s lap and pushes him into violently spanking her.

Waterston told Daily News about removing all of her clothes for a scene in the movie.

“I feel that nudity is sort of what we do as actors. It’s all nudity, it’s all vulnerable, it’s all at least a little bit scary. But it didn’t feel any more vulnerable or complicated than any other complicated, vulnerable scene I’ve played.”

Waterston plays the role of Shasta Fay Hepworth, a dope-hooked hippie vixen, and ex-girlfriend of a private eye Larry “Doc” Sportello, played by Joaquin Phoenix. This role seems so much out of character for the former fashion model and Connecticut-reared daughter of an Oscar nominee, but Katherine Waterston says she felt a mystifying link to Shasta’s world.

Katherine explains this connection to her character portrayal.

“It’s weird. I feel like people assume if a character is very different than you, that means it’s difficult to get into their head or into their skin. In terms of the ’70s era, I’ve loved the period my whole life, have always been drawn to the music and, as a kid, was fascinated with that moment in American history.”

Inherent Vice is scheduled for a limited release Friday, December 12. This new motion picture also stars Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, and Josh Brolin, alongside Katherine Waterston.

[Image courtesy of Warner Bros.]