'Red, White & Royal Blue' Director Says Taylor Zakhar Perez Asked If He Should Shave His Butt for Nude Scenes

"A body itself, as it is naturally, is a gorgeous thing," said "Red, White & Royal Blue" director Matthew López

Red, White & Royal Blue actor Taylor Zakhar Perez brought an unusual question to the film's director, Matthew López, during production.

As López, 46, appeared on SiriusXM's The Jess Cagle Show, he recalled when Perez, 31, approached him to ask whether he should shave body hair from his backside before filming nude scenes for the movie.

After guest co-host Patrick Gomez noted that the rom-com reflects "the reality of body hair," López recalled receiving a phone call from the film's hair and makeup coordinator Karen Hartley asking him to meet her and Perez in the actor's trailer one day.

"I’m like, ‘Uh-oh, uh-oh, oh s---. Oh God. What’s going on?’ “ López recalled. "And I go into Taylor's trailer — we've been making this movie for like, five, six weeks at this point — and Karen looks at Taylor and says, 'Alright, tell him what you told me.’ “

The director said Perez told him, "I don't know if I should shave or not."

"And I’m like, 'Your face?' and he goes, 'No, babe,' " López recalled. "I'm like, 'Alright, well, what do you want to do about it?' He goes, 'Just look, okay?' "

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The director said Perez then removed his pants, joking that Hartley was present "as the chaperone, because I didn't want my career to end before it began."

"Taylor lowers his pants and [he says], 'Look at my ass,' and I'm like: 'You're fine, you’re fine, you look great!' And he’s like, ‘Okay, good, that’s what we thought,' " López added. "I go to set, and after that I walk over to my first A.D. [assistant director] and I was like, ‘You can’t believe how my day just started.’ “ 

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The director went on to say while he does "understand" typical Hollywood expectations for actor's appearances on the big screen, he wondered "why we can’t just change that definition of what is beautiful."

"Hardly anybody is going to argue that these two young men aren’t beautiful," he said. "But a body itself, as it is naturally, is a gorgeous thing. Yeah, I told Taylor, 'Please, yeah, just bring your hairy butt to set.' "

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Perez and his costar Nicholas Galitzine, who play enemies-turned-lovers in the film, previously told PEOPLE that filming sex scenes called for "trust and respect in each other."

"It was just choreography. We would be counting in our heads like a dance: 'Grab one, two; squeeze one, two,' " Perez said. "We just brought humor before we tag in and humor after we tag out, which made everything less serious and kept us in that suspension of disbelief."

"That's how I go through life, finding the humor in everything, the levity, and I brought that. I think Nick's very similar," he added.

Red, White & Royal Blue is now on Prime Video.

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