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Last Dance is the first post-#MeToo Magic Mike. It contends male strippers help women feel empowered. An entire dance is set to the song “Permission.” “We wanted to reflect the conversation that we’re hearing,” says Soderbergh.

Because sex scenes have long been made by and for men, studios may fear that sexy movies are inherently sexist movies. Revelations like Maria Schneider’s story of feeling violated while filming Last Tango in Paris changed the way Hollywood shoots a sex scene. Filming safely now involves hiring an intimacy coordinator to choreograph the scene and ensure the actors’ comfort…

There’s more sex on TV than ever. The high schoolers on HBO’s Euphoria are having messy sex, joyless sex, and, occasionally, satisfying sex. White Lotus interrogated the interplay of desire, money, and power. On Netflix’s Sex Education teens explore their urges and sexuality. “Television for decades had to contend with standards and practices and pretty strict censorship,” says Kidman. “With streaming, there’s no ratings, no limitations.” TV has also broken out of the bounds of the straight, white relationships that still dominate film… 

Intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, who was on set for Last Dance, says it can be hard to tell a tale of intimacy in a two-hour format. She points to Hulu’s Normal People, which she also worked on, about young people who fall in and out of bed with each other as their circumstances shift. “Can you imagine that being a film?” asks O’Brien. “Twelve episodes allow you the chance to get at the depth, the complexity, the intensity of that relationship.” Similarly, Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You needs six hours to explore the gray areas of consent.

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With all the steamy scenes in Dangerous Liaisons, work was cut out for the intimacy coordinator. “Intimate scenes are hard for everyone. For directors, it is wonderful to feel that they can focus on the story that is being told through the intimate scene, without worrying about the logistics.”

It is reassuring for the cast to have a safe space, Harriet adds. “The role of an intimacy coordinator is not only to coordinate the scene, but to make sure that people feel heard and they are comfortable with what they are doing. We were very lucky with Ita O’Brien who did an incredible job and was key to the show.”

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When filming began in February this year, Ward and Colman’s differing processes dovetailed neatly. Ward “had done a lot of work to understand Stephen — I knew the text and was super-prepared”. Colman “is incredibly raw — we go to set and read it once or twice, and she just knows it. It’s electric.”

The production brought in intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien (TV’s Sex Education) to guide the duo through several sex scenes. “It felt like a dance routine,” says Ward. “We would do counts — ‘and one, and two’. If you were getting too invested to the point where I’m becoming Micheal rather than Stephen, you just go back to the counts. It’s quite magical.”

This rhythm helped Colman overcome initial nerves about the scenes, which the actors again approached from differing perspectives that mirrored their characters’ emotions. “Olivia was so uncomfortable that I felt nervous for her,” remembers Ward, “so [the counts] got us to a place where we could tell the story in the most amazing way.” Conversely, Ward had few qualms about the scene where Stephen sprints naked onto an empty beach. “I’m there for the story,” he laughs. “I watched The Talented Mr. Ripley with Jude Law. He’s got an arse scene — if Jude Law can do it, I can do it mate!”

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It [True Things] feels like a radical statement, from a deceptively quiet film: not everything that goes wrong is because of some bad man. “A lot of people talk about it as a gaslighting toxic relationship. It wasn’t really – she’s the driving force. She’s the one that essentially chooses, decides to pursue him. She’s gonna get what she wants. And when she does get it, she’s, like: ‘Nah, I don’t want it.’ It’s not romantic at all,” Wilson concedes, “but it felt quite honest.”

Nor is it full of nude scenes, maybe contrary to the expectations set up by the fact that it had the same intimacy co-ordinator – Ita O’Brien – as Normal People. Wilson recalls that the director said: “I don’t really care about nudity. To me, that’s not where intimacy is. Yes, nudity is beautiful and wonderful and can be really ugly, and can be all the things you want it to be, but we’re exploring the dynamic between two people – they don’t have to be naked.”

The whole culture around sex scenes has changed a lot, even in the past couple of years. It was as recently as 2018 that Wilson left The Affair – the show, also starring Dominic West, for which she won a Golden Globe – and she’s reticent about it (citing, in the past, a non-disclosure agreement), but there were some allegations at the time of inappropriate behaviour.

Wilson says intimacy coaches have completely changed the game, too, though. “We have proper discussions: what the director is hoping to achieve, what the actors feel comfortable doing and not doing, and how do we really get that anyway? What is the scene actually trying to make happen between the two people in that moment? Because it should be as conversational as any other scene. Sex is so interesting, and so detailed, and so specific to the relationship you’re having with that person and yourself at the time within your life. It really should be as nuanced as that.”

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You really have to make sure that the space is conducive to that flow state. In acting, it’s only conducive when you’re in a safe space that allows for freedom. [Intimacy coordinator] Ita O’Brien made us a space safe, and the intimacy scenes are really beautiful because of it. And then we can leave that set and be like, “See you later. We’re done now, I’m going to go have a coffee and a hot dog.” No emotional destruction or power play. We just made some really cool stuff, and then you go home.

I’ve done a little bit of intimacy stuff in the theater world, but [an intimacy coordinator] is an incredibly welcome addition to any kind of creative space. I’m learning a lot about how a film set can be run in a respectful way. There’s so many stories—especially from Australia, where I’m from—where it’s just gone awry. I hear stories about how sets have gone to shit, or theater spaces and rehearsals have been so unsafe.

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Interview with Paul Mescal on “Lady Chatterly’s Lover“:

MESCAL: When you say, “You’re going to like it,” the class structure of it comes sharply into focus. It’s always there in the background, but that was played so well.

CORRIN: Totally, and he really got that. He spoke a lot about the tenderness in Oliver, which is something that was previously unexplored. We were like, “Wow, there’s a real depth here.” And then he was signed on and we had two weeks of rehearsals with [intimacy coordinator] Ita O’Brien.

MESCAL: Oh, nice. I know Ita well.

CORRIN: We love Ita.

MESCAL: Did she do the animal work with you?

CORRIN: Oh yeah. [Laughs] And then we also did—one of us was blindfolded and led the other outside and touched things and it was about trust and all that jazz.

MESCAL: I have an image of Emma Corrin leading Jack O’Connell blindfolded around the streets of London touching lampposts.

CORRIN: Pretty much. We had two weeks to basically chart the emotional journey for sex scenes, because we didn’t want any of them to be gratuitous.

MESCAL: Those sex scenes feel incredibly modern, and that’s what lasts with me. It’s aesthetically set in that period, but the relationship, if you took the costumes away and the way that they talk to each other sometimes—there are moments where it feels really modern. I don’t know if that dialogue is lifted from the novel.

CORRIN: It’s from the book. It’s wild. 

MESCAL: Really? Wow.

CORRIN: Yeah. He uses the word “fuck” and I’m like, I didn’t even think that word existed in the ’20s. It’s an amazingly modern book. Especially the way it talks about sex. But what helped both of us with everything was that we did the dancing in the rain scene the first week of shooting.

MESCAL: Oh whoa, what was that experience like? 

CORRIN: The most terrifying but exhilarating thing I’ve ever done in my life. There’s a lot of stuff that can be cushioned with the magic of filmmaking, but in that scene we were literally just running around naked in the rain.

MESCAL: I was like fair fucking play to you both because that’s really hard. How long did you shoot that scene for?

CORRIN: All day. The novelty really wore off by hour 11. It got really cold.

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Jack O’Connell has called intimacy coordinators “necessary” after working with one for the first time in “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” and said that “in hindsight,” he wishes there was one on the set of his teen drama series, “Skins.”

The British actor spoke to Insider ahead of the release of Netflix’s new adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s seminal novel, in which he plays the role of Oliver Mellors, the taciturn but tender working-class gamekeeper who embarks on a passionate affair with his employer’s wife, Lady Constance Chatterley (Emma Corrin).

Staying true to the story’s erotic nature, the film features several intimate scenes between the two, culminating in a euphoric sequence in which they dance completely naked in the rain.

Full-frontal nudity was required of the actor and his costar, and O’Connell said that such scenes were only possible thanks to the help of “fantastic” intimacy coordinator and movement director Ita O’Brien, who previously worked on the BBC/Hulu series “Normal People.”

Noting that it was his “first experience” of working with someone who has been specifically employed on set to facilitate the filming of sex scenes, he said he was glad to have them there.

“I think that it is necessary,” he told Insider. “To have someone who’s officially appointed to oversee that everyone is comfortable, I think it is vital.”

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What I enjoyed so much about your Lady Chatterley’s Lover is just how sexy it is. There’s a real lack of eroticism and sexuality on-screen and, as you say, human touch and connection. What’s your perspective on the state of sex and romance on-screen?

I thought [the sex] was very faithful to Lawrence because this is what he always wanted to bring. I felt I needed to bring this as well, but as a revitalization of a human being, as something that heals. Especially the scene where they’re running under the rain naked—there’s something so erotic and so liberating. When I was reading the script, I had forgotten that scene, and I was like, “Well, this is what I want to experience and explore, and bring this ecstatic freedom.” The actors felt the same way.

I saw that you used intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien—who’s worked on Normal People and I May Destroy You—for the sex scenes.

She helped us dive into those scenes and face them as an emotional narrative, to be shameless and not awkward about details. She was there to explain and guide us through it and make it authentic. We had two weeks of rehearsals—Jack, Emma, Ita, the cinematographer [Benoît Delhomme] and I—and we found the right shapes, the right emotions, the best choreography.

Emma and Jack were really involved in this process. It cemented our trust and bond. [The process was] desexualized, which was important—because when you’re rehearsing the scene, there’s always a fine line between reality and fiction, and it can be awkward. As a former actress, I have to say that I was on set a while ago and I had to face this kind of scene. No one would tell me anything and guide me through it. I was petrified. It’s not only that it’s not pleasant, but you also don’t do a good job because you are not fully prepared in a safe space.

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She also says that making a movie with so much sex in it “was a challenge, because sexual intercourse can be really boring on-screen”.

However, with the help of intimacy coordinator and movement director Ita O’Brien – who has a background in dance – Clermont-Tonnerre says they used “choreography” to “say something about the emotional growth” of each scene and avoid anything “gratuitous or redundant”.

The filmmaker also says the book was well ahead of its time.

“DH Lawrence was the first writer to address female sexual pleasure. And I think this is always important to glorify the body of a woman and what he really wanted to say was that sexuality is pure and beautiful and nothing shameful and dirty,” she said.

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Finally, directing is about drawing the best from performers: a function not only of rigorous and precise work, but also of a supportive and safe rehearsal room. We worked closely with intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien and movement director Sarita Piotrowski on making scenes that honour the truth and continued relevance of this story, while respecting human feelings of discomfort and vulnerability. In the old days, performers and audience alike had merely to accept traumatic material: today we place similar emphasis on alerting our audience to what they will see and hear, treating subjects with the sensitivity they deserve.

The Rape of Lucretia will never be an opera like Carmen or The Marriage of Figaro, drawing in large crowds. It is a strange, unsettling, at times unbearably private piece, but it will remain a work whose originality and unique force will continue to trouble audiences for as long as the awful crime at its centre blights humankind.

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Emma Corrin weighs in on debate about intimacy coaches as they discuss filming racy scenes for Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Addressing the sex scenes on the radio show, Emma gushed over their intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, who also worked on Normal People, saying her role was vital during filming.

The introduction of intimacy coaches have caused much debate, with Emma weighing in on the issue as they said they are pleased the film industry has started to use them.

‘We worked with an amazing intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien, who also did Normal People and that’s something that the industry has really woken up to,’ they said.

‘I always compare it to like, you wouldn’t do a fight sequence or a stunt sequence without a stunt coordinator, and you shouldn’t do intimacy scenes without an intimacy coordinator.’

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Corrin was attached to the project before the search for the right Mellors began. Given the levels of intimacy required, the actor had to be someone who could balance great vulnerability and rawness with physical magnetism — not just “the gruff guy who lives in the woods, who represents sex,” as Corrin puts it. O’Connell, whose career from the days of Skins and Starred Up onward has tended toward explorations of the sensitive spots that lie beneath hard, masculine exteriors, was the perfect fit. “We got on well, we’re very good friends,” Corrin says, adding that they rehearsed intensively with Sex Education and Master of None intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien beforehand, blocking every sex scene beat by beat like a dance. “I think [they] are just the most brilliant people, and so essential. You wouldn’t do a stunt without a stunt coordinator, so why would you do a sex scene without an intimacy coordinator?”

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But Normal People endeared him to fans who were patently less interested in his craft than in his body. Mescal never got comfortable with seeing naked pictures of himself across the internet, though he says he’s proud of the sex scenes because of their authenticity. He and his co-star, Daisy Edgar‑Jones, worked closely with an intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien, who compares her job to teaching people to waltz.

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The sex scenes could have made for more mortifying stories. But the actors worked closely with the show’s intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien, to make them feel safe and liberating. “It was actually a really good bonding thing,” Denton said. And with sex out of the way — lots of it, especially in the first episode — they could navigate the riskier contours of Camille and Pascal’s relationship.

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Corrin was very much on board with de Clermont-Tonnerre’s vision, telling the director, “‘I want to explore that feeling of ecstatic freedom’…Emma’s such a free spirit and I think they wanted to express that through Connie.”

The film did have an intimacy coordinator on set, Ita O’Brien, who worked on Hulu’s Normal People, so viewers can enjoy the intimacy knowing there was a lot of communication and consent involved and a whole lot of rehearsal. Corrin told Vanity Fair that the “sex scenes would never feel gratuitous and it would always feel justified.”

“I felt so in awe of it, and also of Connie’s whole journey with her sexuality and her own access to pleasure and her body,” Corrin added.

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BY TORI BRAZIER

Ita O’Brien has been working in the theatre, TV and film industry for almost 40 years – first as a dancer and actor before training as a movement director. However, it is her role as an intimacy coordinator that has seen her feted by actors and pushed to the forefront of a global conversation following the birth of the #MeToo movement five years ago this month.

She is one of the most positive consequences in Hollywood of the downfall of disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, since sentenced to 23 years in jail for his sex crimes against women in the industry.

With the formation of the Time’s Up organisation in response to #MeToo in January 2018, productions started realising more formal processes were needed to protect both crew members and performers in the workplace.

Ita O’Brien’s first time working as an intimacy coordinator was in 2018 for Sex Education. The result is brilliant as the series is a tremendous success. The mechanism is then launched for Ita, which surrounds more and more takes for Netflix, HBO, BBC or even Warner Bros. productions . Historical fictions such as Gentleman Jack or The Last Duel by Ridley Scott (film for which she collaborates with actors Matt Damon and Adam Driver), to the triumph of the series.

From I May Destroy You to marvelous adaptations of the works of Sally Rooney, Normal People and Conversations With Friends, Ita O’Brien is always on the lookout for cinematic nuggets where intimacy is at the heart of the narrative. In these last two programs, it is indeed intimacy, in its most vulnerable aspect, which drives the story forward. It’s rare to see this on screen, but it’s beautiful. Behind this authenticity, there is the confidence of the actors, free to play serenely because they are supported by their intimacy coordinator. A support that Michaela Coel does not fail to welcome in her speech when she received the 2021 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Best Actress award for her performance in I May Destroy You. 

​“Thank you Ita for making our industry a safe space, for creating physical, emotional and professional boundaries so that we could do works about exploitation and abuse without ourselves being abused in the process.”

MICHAELA COEL

This is how the creative industry welcomes intimacy coordination. In order to grasp all its facets, I spoke with Ita O’Brien.

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