Newfoundland actor, writer and director Mary Walsh is looking for volunteers to stand naked on the St. John's waterfront next Saturday.

Up to 500 people are needed to become "flesh architecture" in a new film the star and creator of Hatching, Matching and Dispatching intends to shoot coast to coast.

Mary Walsh, shown as Mamie Lou Furey in Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, says she won't pose nude for film shoot as she doesn't want 'people to be frightened.'
(CBC)

"We're inviting people to be part of a high-def shoot where we have 500 naked people looking this way," Walsh told CBC News, indicating the back view.

"So it's 500 bums and backs of head, so there are no dangly bits available to anyone."

Walsh plans to film naked Canadians right across the country, in a kind of homage to New York photographer Spencer Tunick, who's shot thousands of naked bodies in urban locations around the world.

"The point to us is that this is who we are," she said. "All across the country, we are only a bunch of people, and the truth of our realness is what we have. And we all have the same stuff — some people have a more expensive coat, but nobody has a more expensive bum."

The first shoot, scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 15, in St. John's, has yet to be confirmed because the project needs to be OK'd by the police.

"We don't have our naked permit yet, but we're in the process of getting our naked permit," Walsh said.

Walsh opened up about the project on Thursday on CBC Radio, and phone lines at police headquarters immediately lit up with objections.

Walsh said she hadn't anticipated so much controversy.

"All the controversy is a surprise to me. You think 'We'll do this small arts thing,' and then 'Awwww!,' you know," she said, adding that at that early hour there are unlikely to be impressionable souls on streets.

Walsh says she'll be participating, but behind the camera as she'll be directing the shoot.

"I'm a 55-year-old woman, let's face it, I don't want people to be frightened," she said.

Canadians who want to get naked for Walsh, can sign up on her Facebook page or call the Eastern Edge Gallery in St. John's.

If the St. John's shoot goes ahead, Walsh promises to serve hot coffee and buns.