Total Recall's Original Three-Breasted Woman Fought Back Tears During Her Topless Scene

1990’s Total Recall, now seeing a remake starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, et. al, may best be remembered for a two-second scene in which a three-breasted woman exposes herself to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The woman who originated the part, day player Lycia Naff, went on to write for OK! Magazine, People Magazine, and the Miami Herald. She divulged to Vulture that four breasts were the original plan until they tested poorly (“too bovine”), compared Schwarzenegger to a “baby bird” and “an automaton” in the same breath, and admitted her discomfort while filming:

It didn’t hit me until the first moment where the scene called for me to expose myself, because what came over me was such shame. Which was weird, because they weren’t my breasts, and it was what I had signed up to do. So why was I getting a reality shock now? I started to cry, and if you look closely at those scenes when I’m opening my blouse, I’m smiling, but not in my eyes.

She also wished her successor in the remake, Kaitleen Leeb, the best of luck with the “horny sci-fi fanboys” and myriad other opportunities that scared her shitless at the time.

I was so petrified when all the reality of it sunk in. Entertainment Tonight wanted to me to come on the show, me and the guy with the one eye, so they could do a piece on the prosthetics, and I said no. Johnny Carson wanted me to come and sit on his couch, and I said no. I was stupid, embarrassed, and young. Now, looking back, why not? Why not make a goof of it?

‘A Candid Conversation With Total Recall’s Original Three-Breasted Woman’ [Vulture]