‘National Lampoon’ star Beverly D'Angelo says she'd tell younger self to 'do more nudity' in Hollywood career
When Christie Brinkley hesitated to go topless while filming "National Lampoon’s Vacation," Beverly D’Angelo stepped in and saved the day.
D’Angelo is kicking off the new year starring alongside Hayden Panettiere in the psychological thriller "Sleepwalker." The actress told Fox News Digital she once supported Brinkley when a scene in the 1983 comedy called for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model to appear topless.
"I sure love the story, and it sounds like exactly where I’d step in and say, ‘Leave this girl alone,’" said the star.
"Her being topless really wasn’t that pivotal to what was going on in the scene. But, I thought it really made a difference to see the little devoted wife say to her husband, ‘OK, you want to have fun? I’ll show you fun,’ and then just strip off. I thought that was great. I thought it was really perfect."
"So, I didn’t have any qualms about it," the 74-year-old shared. "And the pool was heated. In fact, I have to say, people ask me, ‘What would you say to your younger self?’ I would’ve said, ‘Do more nudity.’"
Brinkley appeared in the film as the flirty "Girl in the Ferrari" opposite Chevy Chase, who played D’Angelo’s husband, Clark Griswold. Viewers watched as Chase’s character struggled to keep his eyes on the road when the blonde bombshell beside him sped past in her sports car.
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In Brinkley’s 2025 memoir "Uptown Girl," the pinup recalled that producers asked her to go topless for a scene, but she refused.
"The most memorable part of filming was the scene where I bump into Chevy’s character at a motel pool and talk him into going skinny-dipping, which we shot at two in the morning," wrote Brinkley in an excerpt obtained by Fox News Digital.
"That’s when the production team asked me to go topless for the shot, but I wasn’t comfortable with it: I knew very well by then that part of my appeal as a model was that men had to imagine what was underneath my swimsuit, and I wasn’t about to give that away for what I thought would be a small, goofy movie. (None of us at the time ever suspected ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ would take off the way it did)."
"When the production team asked again about the possibility of nudity — and I couldn’t blame them for trying — Beverly walked out onto set in the nick of time. ‘I’ll do it,’ she said. ‘I’ll be the one to go topless! You’ll get your t---ies.' I couldn’t have loved her more [at] that moment. And in my opinion, the scene between Chevy and me is funnier and cleverer because I throw my bra and panties at him from off camera, and all that the viewers can see are his oversized facial expressions."
D’Angelo told Fox News Digital she didn’t think twice about helping a friend out.
"She was coming from a modeling background," D’Angelo explained.
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"She had a different perspective on what she should and shouldn’t do. She’s a supermodel, for goodness' sake. But maybe the difference is that I think, as an actor, you use what you have to tell a story. You have to regard your body, your face and all that stuff as part of your instrument. It’s part of what you’re working with to express something. So, I didn’t have any nervousness about that."
D'Angelo revealed that the cast has remained protective of Brinkley over the years.
"I adore Christie," she said. "I respect her. I admire her. I love her so much. She has the most positive outlook on life. She’s a bright, white light wherever she goes. She’s wonderful and a beautiful friend."
"I’ll give you an example," D’Angelo shared. "We were making a personal appearance at a convention. I had just broken my baby toe doing something idiotic with an online workout. I ran across the room and caught my toe on a piece of furniture. It really hurt, but I didn’t think anything of it. And then I went on a hike after that. When I came back, it looked like something really serious was happening. I walked myself to a podiatrist, and he said, ‘No wonder it hurts. Your toe is broken.’"
"I remember I was in a wheelchair and I told her, ‘I broke my toe. It’s really a drag because, even though it’s just a baby toe, it’s affecting everything else. I can’t walk on it for long,’" D’Angelo continued. "She turned to the person beside her and said, ‘Send her a Bowflex.’ When I got back to L.A., this big package arrived — the Bowflex machine, assembled. She’s not like, ‘Oh, poor you.’ It was more like, ‘I can fix it.’"
"I love her — Chevy loves her. We all love her," D’Angelo added.
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In 2025, Brinkley told Fox News Digital she was relieved that D’Angelo stepped in and saved her from stripping down.
"I was so grateful from day one when I got there," the 71-year-old said at the time.
"I arrived at the location, and I wasn’t really sure what to do with myself. I was in this motel in the middle of nowhere, and then I got a call from Beverly right away saying, ‘Hey! Welcome. We’re all going to head out and grab a bite to eat. Why don’t you come with us?' That’s the kind of thing that just puts you at ease and lets you feel like, 'I can relax. I’ve got a friend.’"
Chase, now 82, was just as welcoming, Brinkley wrote in her book.
"[He asked] me for my ‘beauty secrets’ in his own hilarious way: ‘Christie, you gotta give me tips to make my hair look thicker!’ she wrote. "As funny as he was, he was also shy, a combination I found endearing, and we quickly developed a playful chemistry that translated on-screen."
Brinkley has been photographed on six continents and in more than 30 countries, appearing on over 500 magazine covers worldwide. Yet she has never posed nude.
"I really knew that I wanted to be a mom, and I didn’t want [my children] to go to school and have some kid go, 'There’s your mom! I see your mom!'" the cover girl told Fox News Digital.
"And so I made that decision. I think people knew. There was something about me that didn’t attract that kind of attention, and I didn’t have photographers trying to get me to strip down all the time. It just didn’t happen."
For decades, Brinkley was known as "America’s Sweetheart," a title that she said suited her just fine.
"It’s very sweet," she told Fox News Digital. "I never really took it literally. I just thought that it's a compliment you take with a grain of salt. But it was very pleasant and sweet that they wanted to say something nice about me."
Brinkley said she has no regrets about her stance.
"Now I can look back and go, ‘Wow, I did that. Good for me,'" she said.