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BY  ROBERT GOLDRICH

The revelation for Abrahamson was the invaluable contribution of intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien. Abrahamson confessed that he didn’t even know about the intimacy coordinator role going into Normal People and he was skeptical about its worth. He discovered otherwise. “I came to really value her. She was brilliant at setting a way of working, a structure, helping actors to feel safe and listened to. We could not have achieved that level of candidness in shooting otherwise.”

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By Marjorie Brennan

The sex scenes between Connell and Marianne, which are such an integral part of the book Normal People are particularly striking in their authenticity in the screen version. 

The presence of intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien — whose work has been increasingly in demand since the advent of #MeToo — on set helped greatly with the filming of the scenes, despite Abrahamson’s initial reservations.

“That role is new to me, and initially I was probably sceptical, thinking ‘I don’t want someone to get between me and the cast’. I wanted to be able to move from dialogue into intimacy really seamlessly, because the intimacy continues the conversation, it’s not something separate — that’s what’s great about the novel. 

“And Ita really helped there because she creates an environment in which everyone feels very safe and listened to. I don’t want to be in a situation where the actors wouldn’t feel able to say no to something I wanted…. And Ita is not out to get in the way of my relationship with them and what we’re trying to do dramatically or artistically, she’s there to make that happen in a way that keeps everyone safe and happy. 

“So the reason those scenes feel truthful and real is a lot to do with the environment Ita creates. She’s brilliant and I’d work with her again in a heartbeat.”

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By Donal O’Donoghue

The show also used the same intimacy co-ordinator, Ita O’Brien, as Sex Education when filming the scenes between Marianne and Connell. “I was worried about using the co-ordinator initially, thinking that it might get between me and the actors, but in fact we found it quite liberating and empowering,” says Abrahamson. “And I also had the certainty that the actors were comfortable with what we were doing.”

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BY ABIGAIL GLASGOW

That’s where Normal People’s intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien comes in. Like a stunt coordinator, she brings technique and skill to the movement via open communication and transparency. Her role is more comprehensive than simply determining the physical choreography of a scene; she helps actors understand their characters even in phases of script study; she works in tandem with the entire crew—directors, producers, wardrobe, assistants—through the entirety of the rehearsal process up until intimate content is shot on a closed set. The intimacy coordinator is helping to reshape—from rehearsal to audience—the infamously abusive relationship the industry has with sex.

Here, O’Brien—whose credits include Sex Education and Humans—talks the details of onscreen sex, the challenges of a simple kiss, and how a masturbation montage can change lives.

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Ita O’Brien is an Intimacy Coordinator and Movement Director for film, TV and theatre. She joins Sarah from London to tell us about her work on the series Normal People, and how sex on screen is created with the well being of the cast and crew at the centre of everything.

Listen on the ABC website

Paul also confessed that he was so proud of the show he sat down with his entire family to watch it, though he did choose to warn them ahead of some of the show’s raunchiest moments.  

To ensure Normal People portrayed its sex scenes as accurately as possible, producers called in the help of intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien. 

Normal People has been praised for its ‘realistic’, ‘consensual’ and ‘communicative’ sex scenes between the two lead characters, especially during the first intimate encounter where Connell says: ‘If you want to stop, or anything, we can stop.’

Note: this article is no longer available on the original link: https://indiatimespost.com/normal-peoples-paul-mescal-admits-he-had-no-qualms-with-stripping-off-for-racy-sex-scenes/

By Eoin Murphy

“The intimacy between the two lead characters is such a big part of the book, it is something we really wanted to get right,” he told the Irish Mirror.

“Because it is such a wonderful part of the book and one of the reasons we were so keen to make it.

“In the point of view of the actors and the crew we needed a way of making sure that it is done in a way that is positive for everybody.

“We thought about it and we were guided by Sally’s writing in what we wanted to achieve and then we worked with Ita O’Brien who is this wonderful intimacy coordinator – she worked on Netflix’s Sex Education.

“She has developed a wonderful way of talking about and walking towards scenes which in the past which would have been awkward, difficult and borderline scary for people on both sides of the camera.

“Her way of working is making sure that everyone has a language in which to talk about it, like it is direct and simple.

“She turns these scenes into something that maybe a choreographer wouldn’t do.

“It gives everybody from filmmakers to actors a way of talking about a sex scene and creates a consent and active participation in the creative process.

“And it worked really well”.

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By Navmi Krishna

Watching Normal People is an exercise in understanding the different facets of intimacy. There is no escaping the intensity of it, with the camera often zooming in on the actors until it is difficult to separate the viewer and the characters. The sex (of which there is a lot) is passionate, raw and imperfect, and wildly different from the cinematic intercourse that we are used to. There is a lot of fumbling and giggles, eagerness, and clarity of consent. “When I hear the phrase ‘sex scene,’ I think about a dialogue scene,” Rooney says in an interview, and that translates onscreen (It helps that Rooney co-wrote the screenplay with Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe). With the help of intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, each scene is a conversation, pregnant with meaning, signalling subtle shifts in the dynamics of the relationship.

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BY STEPHANIE TALMADGE

Sex as depicted on Normal People is unlike the sex we normally see on TV. Where often intimate scenes are hurried, frantic shots of flailing limbs and searching mouths, here they are languorous, drenched in soft afternoon light. There is a beginning, middle, and end. There’s consent-affirming dialogue throughout. Sometimes there are hiccups—like a stubborn bra clasp or a wrong word uttered that shatters the whole mood. There’s almost always naked lounging afterwards. Ultimately, these scenes just feel real, which is not something anyone’s ever said about Westworld or Game of Thrones. Part of that is of course owed to Rooney’s writing in the book, but the work of Ita O’Brien, the show’s intimacy coordinator, is what brought those scenes to life. While still a little-known field, the intimacy coordinator is becoming increasingly in-demand on sets (O’Brien’s other credits include Netflix’s Sex Education and HBO’s Watchmen) in recent years. “When Weinstein and the Time’s Up movement happened,” O’Brien says, “the industry started going, ‘Okay we have to do better, we can’t tolerate predatory behavior.’”

Somewhat counterintuitively, to achieve the naturalistic feel of the scenes between Marianne and Connell, O’Brien actually choreographed all their movements, down to every thrust. “The choreography brings a real safety and structure, so that everything is known,” O’Brien says, which then enables the actors to relax and really embody the character, rather than worrying about where arms and legs and other body parts need to go. “That’s where you get scenes like you’ve got in Normal People.”

Below, O’Brien talks in detail about producing the steamy scenes between Marianne and Connell, how consent should always come from a place of care, and the importance of PDA.

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BY RADHIKA SETH

Having worked as a dancer, actor and movement director for over a decade, O’Brien began developing best practice for intimate scenes, sexual content and nudity across film, TV and theatre six years ago. “I started looking at how we can keep actors safe and what we need to put in place to help them enter into the work and also leave at the end of the day in a good place,” she says. Her role, she adds, is akin to that of a stunt coordinator, encompassing risk assessments, rehearsals and on-set supervision to ensure performers have a clear structure within which to experiment.

As the show’s popularity soars — it has already been watched 16.2m times on BBC iPlayer — we spoke to O’Brien via Zoom to discuss planning productions around menstrual cycles, workshops that look at animal mating rituals and how intimacy coordinators are changing the industry.

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By Zoe Williams

The sex, though, was its own conundrum, televisually speaking, and much was made of the hiring of an intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien (she’s the best in the business, apparently – which comes across a bit droll, if you didn’t realise that was a business). How do you tell the story of two characters whose entire journey is sexual, without just making a soft-porn film? These two questions – how do you present a story so clear without telling it too simply? How do you put the sex in the centre, without making it the point? – are in fact the same question. I only realised that when I saw this quote of Rooney’s: “When I hear the phrase ‘sex scene’, I think about a dialogue scene.” There is no such thing as some sex that just happens, it is as freighted with meaning as words are. The characters are saying something important to one another, something that will propel them forward. If sitcom characters chat and characters in drama talk, then by extension, in the Rooney school, sitcom characters shag, and these characters, well, they do something other than shagging. I wouldn’t say “make love”, so let’s just say “fuck” and let its Anglo-Saxonness transmit the vitality of that. I found their first sex scene really moving, and not especially erotic. I wouldn’t write off anyone else finding it erotic – and there have been some complaints about the volume of sex scenes – but I think I’d defy anyone not to be moved by it.

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The book is very realistic in its portrait of love. How did you work with an intimacy coordinator in preparing to shoot the sex scenes?

Basically, me and Daisy rehearsed with Lenny for two weeks prior to filming. And on one of those days, Ita [O’Brien, the intimacy coordinator] came in to work with us and take us through her process of what a day on set would look like when we were shooting those scenes. And that was really useful because it took the edge off the anxiety when it came to shooting those scenes on the first day that we shot them.

Me and Daisy felt safe throughout the process. What we would do is Ita would check in with me and Daisy in our trailers in the morning. And then she’d ask if we were feeling okay and have a brief conversation. Then we would discuss the degree of nudity that would be required each and every day. And then after that, me and Daisy would arrive to set, and we’d block through the scene in sweatpants and a T-shirt. Then we would have a conversation, both myself and Daisy — and Lenny and Ita — about what we were comfortable with. And all those things were basically to give me and Daisy agency in the process and take away anxiety.

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The revolutionary handling of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People by directors Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald has offered some sex-on-screen revelations these past few weeks — not only for the TV show’s depiction of consent-first sexual encounters but for raising public awareness of the role that intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien played during the Hulu/BBC Three series, ensuring the comfort of actors Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal at all times.

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By Gunseli Yalcinkaya

How would you describe your role?

Ita O’Brien: As an intimacy coordinator, we’re bringing to the industry a shift to help everybody know that just as with a dance or a fight, we’re doing intimate content, we’re bringing a skill and a structure that allows everyone to work professionally, which wasn’t there before. In that, we’re inviting clear communication from the get-go, right through the whole process, so everything’s understood, everything’s out in the open, and that the invitation is to speak openly, in a professional way, with adult language about intimate content.

How much of the characters do you consider when crafting an intimate scene?

Ita O’Brien: Intimacy work is about serving character, serving the writing, serving the director’s vision. And then, with that clear focus on character, you’re just making sure to honour what the scene is and putting it in place.

You’ll speak to the director about what he or she wants from the scene and make sure the director has spoken to the actors. Once that’s happened, I’ll check-in with the actors as to any concerns, and once we’re on set, I’m present while they have the director rehearsal in that scene.

It’s about the intention, where the characters are at this point in time. It’s about observing what the actors are offering, observing how they’re being in their body, and from that will emerge a basic shape, physically, in the scene. Then, once they’ve already got a basic shape, I’ll step in and start agreeing the touch and choreography.

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By Siobhan Hegarty

In the last few years, high-profile actors, including GoT’s Emilia Clarke and Frida star Salma Hayek, have said they were pressured (in Clarke’s situation) or threatened (in Hayek’s) to expose their bodies and partake in gratuitous simulated sex scenes.

And this doesn’t just affect the actors involved. It can warp audience’s perspectives of the realities of sex and consent.

That’s something intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien is fighting to change. “With the intimate content, it’s your personal and private body that’s at play,” she points out.

“An injury can go from purely physical, to emotional and psychological — when someone’s body has been handled and touched in a way that is not suitable for that person and is not within their agreement and consent.”

O’Brien likens her role to a stunt coordinator — only she applies choreography and a consent-based framework to sexual content and nudity, rather than action sequences.

Some of her most recent work can be seen on Normal People, the BBC and Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s 2018 book of the same name, which focusses on a teen romance in Ireland. (And involves quite a bit of sex.)

“There’s a scene in episode two, the first time making love, and for Marianne it’s her experience of losing her virginity. That scene took all day, so I’m not saying that by choreographing a scene you’re not going to make it exhausting.

“But the intimacy coordination work is about everybody being in agreement and consent … and absolutely every detail serving character, serving storytelling.”

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BY AMY KAUFMAN

“Normal People” isn’t about sex. It’s a quiet relationship drama that follows two Irish teenagers, Marianne and Connell, as they fall in and out of love over the course of their high school and collegiate years. But their intimacy is an integral part of the romance, and the way it’s depicted on screen is far more vulnerable and unhurried than in most Hollywood productions. Yes, there’s full-frontal nudity, but more impactful are the prolonged stares, breathy kisses and subtle skin grazes loaded with meaning.

So how do you make sex scenes between two total strangers — who swear, just like post-”A Star Is Born” Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, that they’ve never dated — look so real?

Hiring an intimacy coordinator, for starters. Lenny Abrahamson, who executive produced the series and also directed its first six episodes, admits he was initially hesitant when the idea was floated. He didn’t want Ita O’Brien — who has also coached actors on Netflix’s “Sex Education” and HBO’s “Gentleman Jack” — to come between him and the cast.