Gina Gershon turned down a topless victim role in Friday the 13th Part 2
2025 marked the 45th anniversary of one of my all-time favorite films: the slasher movie Friday the 13th. This year also marks the 45th anniversary of one one of my all-time favorite films: Friday the 13th Part 2, the first of several sequels in that franchise. That movie reached theatres on May 1, 1981 – and coincidentally, with that date quickly approaching, actress Gina Gershon has shared a memory of her brush with the production, revealing that she turned down a role in Friday the 13th Part 2 because she felt it was exploitative.
AlphaPussy
This revelation comes from the pages of Gershon’s recently published memoir, AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs (you can pick up a copy HERE). Our friends at Bloody Disgusting report that Gershon wrote, “At the time, those kinds of slasher movies always had girls dying with their breasts exposed. My character would be killed by a stake through the heart, blood dripping down her tits. That seemed pretty lame to me: exploitation 101.“
She had more to say in an interview with Fox News Digital: “I was offered a lead in (Friday the 13th Part 2). And, of course, I was so excited to act in movies, but it definitely felt kind of exploitative to me and a little silly that right before she gets killed, her top has to come off. … I was really lucky that I had a father who really taught me how to believe in my own decisions. It wasn’t like I had to rebel against my family. I remember asking him about it, thinking he was going to say, ‘No daughter of mine is going to do that!’ And he said, ‘It’s your body. If you’re comfortable with it, I’m comfortable with it.’ When I sat and thought about it, I just thought, ‘I don’t really want to do this.’ I wasn’t comfortable with it. It seemed silly to me. Not that I had anything against nudity — I grew up on European films — but only if it makes sense for the character and the story. But when it just seems silly, I don’t know. It just felt like it was something that wasn’t for me.“
Cast and Synopsis
Directed by Steve Miner from a screenplay by Ron Kurz, Friday the 13th Part 2 has the following synopsis (taken from the back of the VHS box): Just when you thought it was safe to go back to camp… here’s even more heart-pounding terror. Five years after the horrible bloodbath at Camp Crystal Lake, all that remains is the legend of Jason Voorhees and his demented mother, who had murdered seven camp counselors. At a nearby summer camp, the new counselors are unconcerned about the warnings to stay away from the infamous site. Carefree, the young people roam the area, not sensing the ominous lurking presence. One by one, they are attacked and brutally slaughtered. Suspense and screams abound in this compelling chiller.
The film stars Amy Steel, John Furey, Stu Charno, Lauren-Marie Taylor, Marta Kober, Tom McBride, Bill Randolph, Kirsten Baker, Russell Todd, Walt Gorney, Jack Marks, Cliff Cudney, Adrienne King, Warrington Gillette, and Steve Dash, with a cameo by Betsy Palmer.
Which Victim?
Ironically, if Gina Gershon had accepted a role in Friday the 13th Part 2, she wouldn’t have had to act out this exploitative scene of getting a stake through the heart and having blood “dripping down her tits,” because no such scene exists in the film. Kirsten Baker did have a skinny-dipping scene and Marta Kober’s character is impaled with a spear while having sex with Bill Randolph’s character, but there is no “blood on tits” shot.
Maybe the Marta Kober scene would have been more exploitative if Gina Gershon had been in the role, since Gershon was 18 at the time of production but Kober only turned 17 in the middle of filming… but the MPAA was rough on Friday the 13th Part 2, so even if a shot of bloody breasts had been filmed, chances are that it wouldn’t have made it into the finished film anyway.
Regardless, Gina Gershon did well without appearing in Friday the 13th Part 2, even if it took her until 1986 to play a character who received a name in the credits. (She was a dancer in 1981’s Beatlemania, “Woman” in a 1984 Cars video, a dancer again in 1985’s Girls Just Want to Have Fun, a “girl friend” in Pretty in Pink, and one of the Cobrettes in 1986’s 3:15, The Moment of Truth, but she was Alison Cromwell in the 1986 TV movie Stark: Mirror Image). Over the decades, she has racked up more than 160 screen credits, including Red Heat, Cocktail, Out for Justice, The Player, Best of the Best 3, Showgirls, Bound, Face/Off, Driven, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Rescue Me, Cleaners, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Red Oaks, Blockers, The Little Mermaid, Chucky, Borderlands, Thanksgiving, and a whole lot more.
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