When you're an A-list celebrity, you can make headlines for pretty much anything you say or do. And that point was proven with the "stars not showering" discourse of 2021. After married actors Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher opened up about the bathing habits they've established for themselves and their children on an episode of the podcast Armchair Expert, a conversation kicked off online in which famous and non-famous people alike weighed in on how much to shower, when to shower, and what body parts to soap up while in the shower.
And the debate continues. Others celebrities have spoken out over the years about their bathing schedules, with some openly admitting to rarely showering. Read on to find out what big names aren't big fans of what many people consider a daily ritual.
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1 | Dax Shepard
Kathy Hutchins / ShutterstockDax Shepard kicked off the online showering debate on Armchair Expert, the podcast he co-hosts with Monica Padman. As reported by E! News, during an episode featuring Kunis and Kutcher, the Parenthood actor, who's married to Kristen Bell, said that he'd had a debate about showering with Padman in which he told her "You should not be getting rid of all the natural oil on your skin with a bar of soap every day. It's insane."
2 | Mila Kunis
Kathy Hutchins / ShutterstockKunis and Kutcher agreed with Shepard's advice.
"I don't wash my body with soap every day," Kunis said. "But I wash pits and [expletives] and holes and soles." The That '70s Show star explained further, "I didn't have hot water growing up as a child, so I didn't shower very much anyway."
She also shared that she didn't bathe her two children as much as some parents do. "When I had children, I also didn't wash them every day. I wasn't the parent that bathed my newborns—ever," she said.
3 | Ashton Kutcher
Kathy Hutchins / ShutterstockKunis' husband shared a similar showering philosophy on the podcast.
"I wash my armpits and my crotch daily, and nothing else ever," Kutcher told Shepard and Padman. "I got a bar of Lever 2000 that just delivers every time. Nothing else." Of his and Kunis' kids, he added, "Here's the thing—if you can see the dirt on 'em, clean 'em. Otherwise, there's no point."
Kunis and Kutcher later joked about their comments in an Instagram video. Kutcher posted a clip in which the kids can be heard showering in the background while Kunis holds a towel. "You’re putting water on the children? You're trying to melt them?!" Kutcher exclaims. "That’s like the fourth time this week! ... Their body oils are going to be destroyed! What are you trying to do?"
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4 | America Ferrera
DFree / ShutterstockOne star to recently admit that she prefers to shower less frequently is America Ferrera. During a video for Vanity Fair in which Ferrera and her Barbie co-stars had to test how well they know each other, Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, and writer/director Greta Gerwig had to try and guess Ferrera's guilty pleasure.
Eventually, she confessed, "My guilty pleasure would be like—I’m going to regret saying this—it’s like not showering for a few days." Robbie responded, "I would never have expected that!"
5 | Jake Gyllenhaal
Fred Duval / ShutterstockJake Gyllenhaalspoke about showering—and neglecting to—in a 2021 interview with Vanity Fair.
"More and more I find bathing to be less necessary, at times," he said. "I do believe, because Elvis Costello is wonderful, that good manners and bad breath get you nowhere. So I do that." (The Donnie Darko star was referencing a lyric from Costello's 1981 song "New Lace Sleeves.") He continued, "But I do also think that there’s a whole world of not bathing that is also really helpful for skin maintenance, and we naturally clean ourselves."
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6 | Shia LaBeouf
DFree / ShutterstockShia LaBeouf admitted to not showering, but not as part of his normal routine. It was reportedly his process for a movie. The Daily Mail reported in 2014 that, according to a source, LaBeouf was bothering his Fury castmates with how he prepared for the World War II film. "He pulled out his own tooth during the first few weeks of filming and then refused to shower for weeks on end so he could better understand how his character would have felt living in the trenches," a source claimed.
During a 2019 appearance on Hot Ones, LaBeouf was asked if it was true that he didn't shower and shaved down a tooth while making Fury. "Not to remain in character, but sort of to rally the troops, yeah," he said. "Just to sort of like get everybody psyched." He said that the other cast members "would do some things" to just kind of try to keep everybody present. Asked if he was actually moved to different accommodations for hygiene issues, he confirmed that he was kicked out of his original hotel, but that it was because he stole chicken from a meeting that was taking place there.
7 | Brad Pitt
Tinseltown / ShutterstockLaBeouf's Fury co-star Brad Pitt also talked about not showering often, according to actor/director Eli Roth. The two appeared in 2009's Inglourious Basterds together.
"He shared that when you’re sweating and don’t have time to take a shower, you just take a baby wipe and rub it under your armpits," Roth told People. "After a scene, Brad had to get next to me for a close-up shot, and he said, 'Damn, you’re ripe.' I said, 'I didn't have time to shower.' He said, 'Baby wipes, man, baby wipes.'"
Roth said that Pitt became a fan of baby wipes over showering, because he was raising six children. "I got six kids. All you’ve got to do is just take them, a couple quick wipes under the pits," Roth said Pitt told him. "Man, I’m getting [peed] on all day. I don’t have time to take a shower."
