Jennifer Lawrence admits it was "really scary" to shoot a fully nude scene in her new film 'Red Sparrow'.

Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence

The 27-year-old actress stars as Russian prima ballerina-turned-spy Dominika Egorova in the new movie by Francis Lawrence and in one scene she had to strip naked and she has revealed she couldn't sleep the night before the shoot.

She told Australia's 'Today Show': "It was really scary to say yes to the movie because I knew the only way to tell the story is if I agreed to really do the scenes and go full Monty. It took a while to say 'yes'. And the night before I didn't sleep at all and I was obviously really nervous because it is the actual nightmare of standing in front of a classroom naked. But then after I finished the scene I felt empowered."

The 'Hunger Games' star was devastated when her intimate photos were hacked from her smart phone and posted online in 2014, but now she feels "empowered" to drop her clothes for her art, especially braving it for 'Red Sparrow'.

In another scene of torture, freezing water is poured on to her body and the actress the film provided "a lot of firsts" for her.

She said: "I was terrified. I don't think I have ever been so scared of doing a movie before in my life. It was a lot of firsts for me. I was getting water poured on myself. I kept asking for it to be heated up. They said 'no, because then it will steam'. 'Cool, so I'm really naked getting freezing cold water poured on me'."

The new film follows Dominika who faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career.

She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons and becomes a Russian spy.

Egorova emerges as the most dangerous Sparrow after completing the sadistic training process. As she comes to terms with her new abilities, Dominika meets CIA agent Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) who tries to convince her that he is the only person she can trust leading to her considering becoming a double agent.