Rachel Ward says young starlets must go nude to be successful - 14.Jun.2009

Naked ambition ... Rachel Ward says she regrets not appearing nude on film more often.

IT may be a double standard, but actress and film-maker Rachel Ward says young starlets just have to accept that audiences have a right to see them - but not men - naked.

After refusing to bare more than her breasts throughout her career, Ward says she now wishes she had appeared fully nude more often.

"If you're going to be an actress in film, you can't be coy," Ward told The Sunday Telegraph.

"Breasts are sexy. I want to see them and audiences want to see them . . . I've certainly had to do my fair share of it. If you're going to be an actress or a model, it's usually part of the package."

Men don't have to worry about the issue though because, well, their privates don't make pleasant viewing, she says.

"We don't want to see willies because they're ugly," Ward says.

"We want to see breasts because they're beautiful."

Ward says she has never appeared fully nude in three decades working in film and television, adding that it was "a constant battle with directors" over taking all her clothes off.

But now, at 51, a candid Ward said: "I wish I had. I was just a prudish English girl and I wish I had been less prudish about it really."