Contemporary Use
In Hollywood film making, merkins can be worn by actors and actresses to avoid inadvertent exposure of the genitalia during nude or semi-nude scenes. If a merkin are not worn, it would be necessary to restrict the shot to exclude the genital area. With the merkin in place, brief flashes of the crotch can be used if necessary. The presence of the merkin protects the actor from inadvertently performing "full-frontal" nudity — some contracts specifically require that nipples and genitals be covered in some way — which can help ensure that the film achieves a less restrictive MPAA rating.
A merkin may also be used if the actor has less pubic hair than required, such as the nude dancing extras in The Bank Job, Amy Landecker in A Serious Man (for a nude sunbathing scene, as the actress' bikini wax was not common for the period (1967) when the film is set), and female slaves in Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Lucy Lawless was fitted for a merkin for Spartacus, but did not actually use it. In an interview for Allure, Kate Winslet related how she refused to wear a merkin in The Reader.
At the São Paulo Fashion Week in 2010, design firm Neon dressed a nude model in transparent plastic. According to the designer, the model wore a pubic wig to make her appear more natural. In the director's audio commentary of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, director David Fincher discussed how a merkin was utilized for actress Rooney Mara, after she suggested to him that the character she portrayed in the movie was a natural red head in the book and actually dyed her hair black. Consequently, the merkin she wore was made in the color red. For the release of the movie in Japan, Fincher stated, "I believe in Japan we had to like put a mosaic over it because fake pubes are considered to be nasty."
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