News & Press

By Anita Singh

The BBC’s latest drama, Normal People, is a tender tale of first love that features a number of intimate moments between its two leads, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal.

But the show’s intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien, has said it may be among the last for some time to feature scenes in which the actors are within touching distance of each other.

Instead, dramas filmed during lockdown will have to rely on a healthy dose of imagination.

O’Brien’s job involves working with actors and directors to choreograph love scenes, ensuring that all parties feel comfortable.

Asked how sex scenes can co-exist with rules that bar people from close contact, she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s absolutely something that we are considering, as intimacy coordinators… how we respect social distancing so we can support everybody’s health while also creating intimate contact.

BY KAYLEIGH DRAY 

In a world still reeling from the #MeToo movement, it’s perhaps unsurprising that so many women have come forward to praise Normal People for its unflinching portrayal of sex and consent.

“The sex in Normal People is better than any sex,” tweeted one viewer.

“Safe, consensual and communicative sex should be included so much more in film and TV!” said another.

One more said: “I’m in awe of Normal People so far. It’s absolutely stunning and true to the book. And I also want to call out an actual sex scene on TV that involves a condom and doesn’t turn it into a joke either… they’re just practicing safe sex.”

Another agreed, adding: “This show is so good at showing consent and safe sex! And it’s still sexy and intimate! Yes!!!”

By Brit Dawson

There’s been a lot of talk recently about intimacy co-ordinators and the importance of consent while filming sex scenes – how were you made to feel comfortable on set?

Daisy Edgar-Jones: Paul and I hadn’t done many of those scenes before starting, but Ita (O’Brien, the show’s intimacy coach) was so wonderful. She took the pressure off completely. The scenes ended up being quite positive, and it was like we got a day off because you didn’t need to remember any lines! (Laughs).

Paul Mescal: The first day in particular, they made us feel as safe as humanly possible doing something that is slightly bizarre in the context of the normal world. The fact that they put policies and structures in place allowed me to go about doing the things that are really important to the book as honestly as possible. Also, we were given guidelines in terms of the physical blocking, but it never felt like there was a disconnect from the emotional part of the scene – it never felt clinical or creatively dead.

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By Ash Percival

Director Lenny Abrahamson says: “The opportunity is to show that physical connection and intimacy in a beautiful and non-exploitative way, and that is quite a wonderful and radical thing to be able to do, especially in a world that is saturated in degraded images of sex.”

In order to do this, the show used an intimacy co-ordinator. 

He says: “Having [Ita O’Brien] involved allowed us to talk so freely about what people felt comfortable with, how they would negotiate consent in the context of the simulation that you’re doing on set, the best way to shoot it, and how to choreograph it in a way that makes people feel empowered and not uncomfortable – and of course how to protect everybody involved.”

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BY SIAN CAIN

Once on set, “Daisy, Paul and I would talk through where they could touch each other, where they could kiss each other – as an example, in the early scenes Daisy had to wear a wig, so she had a rule about Paul not running fingers through her hair,” O’Brien explains. “While that might sound banal, it is really important because an actor doesn’t want to have to worry about that while filming sex, they want to be relaxed.”

Then, when everyone is ready, time for a quick hug as an icebreaker – and filming can begin.

In interviews, Edgar-Jones and Mescal have raved about O’Brien. “She’s the go-to,” Mescal told the Observer, while Edgar-Jones called her “brilliant … it was her job to worry about how it would work and we just turned up, did the choreography and carried on”. But director Lenny Abrahamson has cheerfully admitted that he was anxious about working with O’Brien, “because I thought the most subtle and important moments would be between me and the actors.”

BY: ROE MCDERMOTT

To plan and film the sex scenes so that everyone knew exactly what would happen and so that everyone was safe, the production employed an intimacy co-ordinator – a role that has become more popular on film and television sets since MeToo. Intimacy co-ordinators’ jobs are multi-faceted. They start by speaking to the directors and producers to establish what the scene is trying to do for the story; to establish what kind of tone, dynamic and acts the scene requires. They also deal with actors’ management, checking contracts for nudity clauses. Ita O’Brien acted as the intimacy co-ordinator on Normal People, and Abrahamson can’t sing her praises highly enough.

“When I heard about this role, my first reaction was to be sceptical, thinking, ‘This isn’t stunts or car chases, it’s just human behaviour’. And then I thought: is this just like having a health and safety person on set, or just a response to MeToo – and of course I’m totally responsible and would never do anything to make anyone feel uncomfortable. But then I met Ita and she’s so great, funny, down-to-earth and brilliant at setting up a way of working that gives you space as a director to shoot in a way that’s really safe and positive for the crew and cast.”

By Abby Robinson

But through sex and those moments of quiet that follow it, Normal People succeeds in doing what the book does so well, capturing that electricity which fizzes between them and beaming it through the pixels on your screen.

Edgar-Jones and Mescal both credit intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien, who also worked on Sex Education and Gentleman Jack, in helping them to create that fine-tuned atmosphere.

“She was in charge of choreographing those scenes in terms of physical beats, which was really brilliant because it meant that Paul and I were able to just concentrate on the acting part of it,” Edgar Jones told Digital Spy and other press.

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Listen to Lenny Abrahamson talking to RTÉ Arena on RTÉ Radio 1 about directing the television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People. The Oscar-nominated director chatted with Seán Rocks about the new series, which airs on RTÉ One next week.

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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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There is a sexual element to the connection between the central characters, and it is in these moments of intense intimacy that the pair appears to speak a language no one else understands. Sex is a big part of the book, as Rooney captures a yearning that stems not only from lust but the desire to be seen.

All pretence is shed along with their clothes, with Lenny Abrahamson (who directed the first six episodes) setting the tone by conveying a transformative act via tight close-ups and lingering looks. Laying themselves bare in every sense of the word, the post-coital soul sharing is just as revelatory. In a move that is thankfully becoming more common, an intimacy coordinator worked with the young actors, and the results speak for themselves.

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The 53-year-old director enlisted Ita O’Brien to choreograph raunchy parts of the BBC One drama to ensure stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal – who play love-struck Marianne and Connell – looked comfortable with each other on screen.

Lenny said: “The way you are able to portray [the sex] in a positive way, for everyone involved, is to make the actors feel empowered and safe and invested in what is happening.

“Ita O’Brien, our intimacy co-ordinator, was amazing. She is somebody who helps productions negotiate what can be tricky territory for actors, directors, producers and film makers.”

Ita has previously worked with the stars of ‘Sex Education’ and BBC One drama ‘Gentleman Jack’, and helped the actors and crew “negotiate consent” by allowing everyone to talk openly about the vulnerable scenes.

Lenny added: “Having Ita involved allowed us to talk so freely about what people felt comfortable with, how they would negotiate consent in the context of the simulation that you’re doing on set, the best way to shoot it, and how to choreograph it in a way that makes people feel empowered and not uncomfortable.

“And of course how to protect everybody involved.”

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Some of the strongest and most memorable moments from the book are the intimate and complex sex scenes between Marianne and Connell, which are described so wonderfully by Rooney. 

Abrahamson and the lead actors have taken what’s at the heart of those sex scenes and made them feel even more intimate on screen. That is partly thanks to the show’s on-set intimacy director, as the team hired Ita O’Brien – the same intimacy coach who worked on Netflix’s Sex Education.

Both of the lead actors in Normal People are relatively young – Daisy is 21, and Paul is 24 – with little to no experience of filming sex on screen, but it does feature prominently in the book.

Showing how much the filming industry has changed over the years, Daisy and Paul both now feel very strongly that they wouldn’t feel comfortable working without an intimacy director on future projects that involve filming sex scenes.

‘I love that scene, I think it’s one of my favourites,’ Daisy says. ‘It’s beyond accurate, when you both know exactly why you’re there, but you’re going, “When do we get to the bit when we…” The bit where he was taking her bra off, it just happened to be the most awkward bra ever to remove and my arms were stuck. It was a moment for Paul and I to laugh, and it’s normally meant to be perfect and gorgeous on screen, but the directors said play into all that stuff. And we had a wonderful intimacy coordinator; it’s a stunt, which means it takes you personally away from it, it’s just about the choreography.’

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Over the last couple of years, since the #MeToo movement revealed extensive exploitation and abuse in the entertainment industry, there has been new focus on what is demanded of actors and actresses on set, especially when male directors and producers are involved (Hettie Macdonald directed the latter six episodes.)

So the production turned to a professional increasingly sought after in the entertainment industry: an intimacy coordinator. Ita O’Brien, the “Normal People” coordinator, sees her work as bringing the same professionalism to sex scenes that you have at other stages of a shoot, to keep actors from being coerced or left to work out the choreography themselves. She speaks with the director and actors one-on-one, hearing their concerns and establishing the scene’s shape, so there are no surprises when everyone is on set.

O’Brien’s work may have been especially valuable given Rooney’s approach to writing intimate moments. In the book, she grounds sex in sensation and the context of a character’s emotional life, rather than description. She also co-wrote the first six episodes of the show with Alice Birch, and described the sex scenes as “probably less ‘written’ than other parts of the script.” She wanted to leave room for Abrahamson, Edgar-Jones and Mescal to decide what worked best for them, she said.

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The female star of a new BBC drama has hailed its nudity gender equality, with both lead characters filming scenes fully naked.

Daisy Edgar-Jones said that having an intimacy coach on set while filming sex scenes for Normal People, a BBC Three adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel, made them a “a joy” to shoot.

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Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones has said having an intimacy coach on set during the BBC Three adaptation’s sex scenes made them “a joy” to film.

The 12-part series, based on Sally Rooney’s book, stars Cold Feet actress Edgar-Jones, 21, as Marianne and Paul Mescal, 24, in his first television role as Connell.

It follows their relationship from the end of their school days in a small town in the west of Ireland to their undergraduate years at Trinity College.

Describing intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, Edgar-Jones told the Guardian: “She’s brilliant. The sex scenes were a joy to us because it was her job to worry about how it would work and we just turned up, did the choreography and carried on. We just had to think about the emotional beats.

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But the representation of those love stories is inevitably different in a novel, which deals in words, and on film, where articulacy lies in the manipulation of the human body. “The sex was a big challenge and we took it really seriously from the beginning,” says Abrahamson. “What we would aim to show, but also literally how we would do the sex in a way that was positive, safe and healthy for everyone involved both in front of and behind the camera.”

Not least of the challenges was the issue of asymmetry – of both gender and status – which has cast such a shadow over the media world in the era of #MeToo. The theatre, film and TV director Hettie Macdonald is responsible for six of the episodes. “I wanted to make it a more gender-balanced crew right from the start,” says Abrahamson. “It’s often the case that crews are very male-dominated, especially in the camera department, and I’m beginning to see that there’s less and less reason for that.”

“But here’s the biggest thing for me,”he adds. “I’m in my 50s and as far as the young actors are concerned, I’m successful. My worry would be – because I’m squeamish about ever doing anything uncomfortable for them – that they would feel under pressure to do what I wanted, and my fear of that would stop me from asking.”

The breakthrough was the decision to hire the services of “intimacy co-ordinator” Ita O’Brien. “I was anxious to start with because I thought the most subtle and important moments would be between me and the actors,” admits Abrahamson. “But what’s brilliant is that she would come in and talk to the whole crew and production about simple things like not using euphemisms, about getting explicit consent every time you’re about to do something and finding a language to talk about lovemaking, and the shapes and moods of it, that is empowering for the people involved.”

“She’s the go-to,” agrees Mescal. “She’s brilliant,” says Edgar-Jones. “The sex scenes were a joy to us because it was her job to worry about how it would work and we just turned up, did the choreography and carried on. We just had to think about the emotional beats.”

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One thing that helped, he tells me, is the fact that they had on-set intimacy coordinators to work with. Ita O’Brien and David Thackeray have advised on British shows such as Gentleman Jack and Electric Dreams and were available to discuss any worries that the cast might have with the sex scenes they were asked to act out, ranging from the sensuous – Swindells’s detention-time romp with Eric (played by Ncuti Gatwa) – to the horrifying – Wood’s character is traumatised by a stranger who ejaculates on her on a bus.

Butterfield didn’t need the intimacy coordinators himself much, but he was aware that others found their presence hugely helpful. “I didn’t have so many intimate scenes,” he says, “and for a lot of the intimate scenes I did have I was by myself and I felt like I didn’t need a 40-year-old woman to guide me through that.” He laughs. “I thought I could probably manage on my own.

“Quite a few of the other actors, this was their first job, and to have someone who you know you can talk to if you have any concerns was great. And the atmosphere on set was actually really great. The directors and producers were so respectful. We always knew where our boundaries lay, knew that we could say no. No one ever went home feeling that they had done something they didn’t want to do.”

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