when the second series began shooting last year.
Safe sex on set: the rise of
HBO hired Alicia Rodis, a founding member of
intimacy coaches Intimacy Directors International (IDI), who learned
her craft under Tonia Sina, the first intimacy director
to write a thesis on the subject. Rodis’s impact was
so huge that Simon pledged to never work without
an intimacy coordinator again. HBO followed suit
and adopted a policy whereby all shows with
intimate scenes are staffed with an intimacy
coordinator.
Netflix and Amazon Prime have been quick to
respond and are now hiring coordinators to oversee
How do you stop people being groped in the sex scenes across their sets, but terrestrial
workplace when consensual groping is part of the job? broadcasters and major theatres still seem to be
It’s a question that the film and TV industries have dragging their feet on the issue.
been increasingly agonising over in the last few
years, and which has now led to the rise of a new job “I want to have conversations with the National
on set: that of the intimacy coordinator. Theatre, with the RSC, with the Globe,” says
O’Brien, who has worked with the BBC for Sally
“I didn’t think there was even a role in the profession Wainwright’s Gentleman Jack, but says “there is still
when I first started developing this work several such a way to go, [particularly] with older directors
years ago,” says Ita O’Brien, a former actor turned where there is resistance.”
movement director who specialises as an intimacy
coordinator. “Now I can name at least 20 to 30 Elizabeth Talbot, who runs IDI in the UK, has been
intimacy coordinators working around the world – run off her feet in the last year. “The last six months
and we’re training up dozens more to meet the has seen a huge uptick,” she says. “It’s no secret that
demand.” our industry was very unsafe for actors. A lot of it
wasn’t malicious, but it was uninformed. If you don’t
O’Brien’s job is to make sure that actors are have intentions to keep actors and actresses safe
comfortable, that boundaries are discussed, and when they’re simulating sex, or info on how to do
every step of a scene is mutually agreed and that, then everyone is sort of winging it. My goal is
choreographed in the same way as a fight, a dance or that you don’t have to feel someone else’s genitals at
an action sequence. work if you don’t want to; we make sure we advocate
for actors and actresses when they feel too
It was HBO’s The Deuce – an explicit TV drama vulnerable or unsure to do it themselves.”
about the 1970s porn industry – that helped set a new
industry standard in the wake of #MeToo and the Despite the advantages, not everyone is keen. When
Time’s Up campaign. The show, created by David Equity adopted safe-sex scene guidelines, the actor
Simon and George Pelecanos, the team behind The Andy Serkis accused the union of “creative
Wire, was among the first to hire an intimacy censorship” and suggested that actors and directors
coordinator. should arrive at an agreement together. But it’s
because those conversations haven’t happened that
Emily Meade, who plays an aspiring porn star in The makes her work so crucial, says O’Brien. “I’ve
Deuce opposite James Franco – who has been worked with quite a few young actresses and they’re
dogged with allegations of sexual misconduct off set so appreciative that there is someone on set
– made the request for a professional to be available advocating for them and establishing boundaries.”
Both O’Brien and Talbot think their jobs will become
standardised across the acting profession within the
next five years. “It was incredibly difficult for people
to take us seriously when we were trying to get this
off the ground,” says Talbot. “There was a natural
assumption that everyone has sex and actors can
coordinate it themselves. The easiest way to equate
what we do is to think of a fight on set, where a fight
coordinator is hired to make sure everyone is safe
while making the most authentic-looking scene
possible. Intimacy is in a similar vein.”
