She did that primarily because she’d been a child star and she wanted to demonstrate to the world that she wasn’t a kid any more. Plus she had a great rack and a smokin’ bod. The irony of course was that while anybody could rent a video of her writhing naked with a guy and a couple of women at Blockbuster, her mom was busily sending out cease-and-desist letters to every Internet dude who ever pasted a pic of Alyssa’s head mounted on top of Danni Ashe’s body.
Doing a nude scene, or even a softcore sex scene, doesn’t really hurt an actress’ rep too much so long as it’s softcore. Rose McGowan, Alyssa’s costar on Charmed appears nude in a couple of flicks and also at the Oscars, and her other costar appeared nude in “A Reason To Believe” a flick in which she also did some simulated oral on a guy.
In fact, “America’s Sweetheart” niche filler Sandra Bullock did a softcore sex scene in “Fire on the Amazon.” Didn’t seem to hurt her. The real barrier seems to be doing hardcore or hardcore-type stuff in a mainstream film. Frex, Chloe Sevigny’s real-life blowjob in the film “Brown Bunny” got her dropped by her agency, William Morris (although she was quickly picked up by another big agency).