HTGAWM's Karla Souza Negotiated More Clothing for GQ Mexico Cover

Actress Karla Souza, who’s on the cover of GQ Mexico’s October issue, says the cover image would’ve been much more revealing if the magazine had its way.

The current cover shows Souza (aka Laurel on How to Get Away with Murder) smizing while wearing panties and a bustier. For the inside shots, she’s in a bikini. According to Souza, the mag originally wanted her in a bra.

Souza told E! News:

“They wanted me in a bra and panties but I was like, ‘I don’t want to do the bra and panties on a bed thing.’ I wanted sophisticated, fancy, nice and beautiful and sexy but not that. After a year, they were like, ‘OK!’ Luckily, they said yes to bathing suits and things I felt more comfortable in.”

“They had done a lot of the fully naked kind of covers in Mexico. A lot of my fellow actresses had done that so that was the magazine’s thing. They said that’s what sells but then they told me my issue sold.”

Paz Vega, for example, appeared nude-ish on a GQ Mexico cover. This isn’t that surprising, since international glossies traditionally allow more skin on their covers, while American mags tend to be stricter—and now not even Playboy is doing nude spreads anymore, while their international versions have reassured readers that they will remain full of nudity.

That said, American GQ has had celebs like Rihanna topless (covering up her own boobs) on its cover more than once.

Souza adds that she’s glad GQ Mexico was liberal with its Photoshopping, compared to what she’s experienced in the past:

“At the beginning of my career, I did a magazine cover where they gave me boobs that I don’t have, a butt that I don’t have and a waist that I don’t have. I was appalled. It took me three years to ever be in a bikini again. I didn’t want people to do that to my body again…So GQ did nothing—literally nothing. It was great.”