News & Press: Press

By ANOOSH CHAKELIAN

Intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien choreographs some of television’s most impactful moments with her straightforward, yet pioneering, approach. 

​A professional intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien seems to be behind every memorable sex scene on our screens this year – from “ugly” orgasm faces and dysfunctional masturbation in kooky Netflix high school drama Sex Education to menstrual blood and rape flashbacks in the innovative BBC One comedy-drama exploring consent, I May Destroy You.

The latter series ended this week with a characteristically complex and unpredictable finale: a stream of consciousness narrative punctuated with the jarring beats of a deliberately unsettled storytelling structure. And, of course, sex.

O’Brien calls it a “joy” to have worked with Michaela Coel, the show’s writer and lead actor. “She was phenomenal,” she tells me. “Watching her ability to swap hats – her centredness and humility, her ordinariness and inclusiveness, while also doing this ground-breaking intimate content, exposing assaults in so many places and confronting them, and the period sex, I was going, ‘Yes! Thank you!’”

These scenes, some based on the writer’s own experience, can be harrowing. O’Brien makes sure that the majority of the work is done before the day the scene is shot – speaking separately to each actor, checking up with the director and crew to avoid any surprises, marking each beat of the scene’s choreography in the script, and ensuring consent for every touch. For example, if the scene requires a reach for genitalia, the actor decides where precisely on their body the touch can land instead – a specific point on their thigh, perhaps.

BY ADRIENNE WESTENFELD

You may not know Ita O’Brien’s name, but if you’re at all in the loop about prestige television, you know her work. O’Brien is a pioneer in the emerging field of intimacy coordinators, a new category of Hollywood professionals who work on film and television sets to choreograph simulated sex between actors. Yet this challenging and necessary work is so much more than choreography—it’s also a constant negotiation of consent and communication, with intimacy coordinators balancing the safety of performers alongside the vision of writers and directors. In the wake of the #MeToo movement and Hollywood’s continuing reckoning with rampant sexual misconduct, intimacy coordinators have become a fixture on film and television sets, yet O’Brien argues that the role has yet to reach a necessary point of saturation in the industry, with a long road still ahead in the way of standardizing how we keep actors safe.

O’Brien has lent her talents to projects including Normal People, The Great, Watchmen, Sex Education, and most recently, I May Destroy You, where she faced one of her most provocative and boundary-shattering assignments yet. With Chewing Gum genius Michaela Coel spearheading the project as writer, director, and star, the show centers on Arabella, a gregarious young writer in London who must question her reality and rebuild her life after she is drugged and sexually assaulted. Inspired by Coel’s own experience of suffering a sexual assault after her drink was spiked, I May Destroy You threads a breathtaking needle in depicting the messy, non-binary nature of consent, as well as in showcasing sexual encounters not often seen on television: an assault involving two men, an assault involving the removal of a condom mid-intercourse, and period sex, just to name a few. O’Brien was instrumental in bringing these scenes to life, working closely with Coel and other performers to fully and safely realize what existed on the page.

By Steve Holden

Sex on TV is changing, with series like I May Destroy You, Normal People and Sex Education showing an authentic – and sometimes uncomfortable – version of intimacy on screen.

Ita O’Brien choreographed the sex on all three shows – working on scenes depicting sex that was at times funny, touching, awkward and abusive.

The intimacy co-ordinator spoke to Radio 1 Newsbeat about what goes on behind the scenes and how filming sex might work on a socially-distanced set.

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BY SUSANNAH ALEXANDER

Normal People star Daisy Edgar-Jones has revealed that she and co-star Paul Mescal were very comfortable filming intimate scenes together for the drama because their work with an intimacy coordinator made them feel “free”.

Daisy and Paul’s characters – Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron – share a turbulent relationship in the BBC / Hulu co-production and the actors had to film a number of sex scenes together.

Daisy has told Vanity Fair that she and her co-star worked closely with Ita O’Brien, who is an expert in working on intimate scenes, and said that she feels more shows would benefit from hiring somebody like her.

“It was an amazing process. I can’t believe that it’s not been the norm for a very long time because it feels like I don’t know how else you would go about doing those scenes,” she said. “They are integral to telling the story of a relationship between two people as they grow up. The physical side of things is an incredibly important part of that.”

She added that she and Paul worked with Ita to determine what they were each comfortable with doing and said that this had made them feel “more free” when it came to acting out the love scenes.

“We discussed at length with her what exactly we were trying to communicate with each moment,” she said. “We would discuss what each other was comfortable with day to day so you never felt like you were going to overstep anybody’s boundaries. Weirdly, we were kind of more free, because of the structure that was put in place.

“Strangely, those scenes were some of the least challenging once you kind of got the first few under your belt. You knew exactly what you were doing… so there wasn’t much room for nuance.”

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BY ENDA BOWE

“One of the things that’s pretty powerful about that scene is there’s an element of asking for protection in that moment,” she said. “I don’t think often you see lovemaking scenes with those elements, because I think for some reason we feel that that would break the moment or take away from the raciness of it. But it really adds to it, because it’s truthful to what an actual first-time relationship should be like when it comes to Connell making sure Marianne is safe. But also that Marianne feels she’s able to ask for protection and not feel embarrassed by that.”

Intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien worked closely with the actors to make sure that they felt just as comfortable, while also ensuring that their movements looked truthful.

“Ita’s really good at making sure that everybody understands what’s going to happen and feels good about it,” explained Abrahamson. “You have the two actors stand and talk to each other and say what they feel comfortable with [touch-wise].”

Abrahamson said that O’Brien also helped coordinate movements so that, for example, while the actors might look as though their bodies were pressed against each other, they were actually positioning themselves in a certain way to cheat that closeness, or being separated by some material. “There’s all these varieties of covering so that everything that’s off camera is covered,” said Abrahamson. “It’s lots of planning and discussion, but what it means in the end is that everybody feels comfortable.”

Extensive rehearsals involved not only the actors and the intimacy coordinator, but also everyone else who would be on set the day of filming, including the cinematographer and script supervisor. They rehearsed every element of filming the scene, from blocking to camera angles to who would cover the actors with clothing once Abrahamson called “cut.” “All these really simple things help make things go calmly so there’s no rushing around on the day,” he explained. ”So if you’re going to have nakedness on a wide shot, how do you do it to make sure that everyone is comfortable…and then with each sort of setup, you say, ‘Well, on that one, people can wear shorts…or everything can be covered because all you need to see are the faces. You’re basically making a strategy for the day.”

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BY JASMINE TING

Those scenes make romantic movies what they are. But with a global pandemic keeping most people from making any direct physical contact, those potentially iconic moments might not even make it into future movie and TV scripts, which is a total shame. Filmmakers, showrunners, writers, and the whole crew will have to make major changes. Basically, it’s complicated. We talked to some experts about what it could look like.

“It’s not about writing out the romantic journeys of their characters, but it is about considering that intimate arc,” says Ita O’Brien, a professional intimacy coordinator. Basically, they’re going to have to think twice about everything. O’Brien has choreographed scenes for HBO’s new series I May Destroy You, and hit shows Sex Education, and Normal People. If you’ve seen Normal People, it’s pretty hard to believe the very intense and very realistic sex scenes aren’t real. To some extent, they make the entire show. So yeah, Ita, and the people who work in show business alongside her, would know a thing or two about the importance of those scenes.

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O’Brien says one of the possible tactics productions could use is to write scenes in a way that characters could maintain that romantic and sexual tension, while also keeping a safe social distance.

O’Brien says one way that could work is by stopping the scene right before things get ~saucy~, like they used to do in the 1950s. Back then—with actors like James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Audrey Hepburn—sex scenes were still such a scandalous thing in Hollywood. So the actors would get as close as they possibly could to each other, maybe share a kiss, and then right before they got it on, the camera would pan over to a fireplace (to symbolize the seriously hot sex they’re having, duh), or the screen would just fade to black.

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By Michael Pickard

​The project also saw Wiener work with intimacy coordinators for the first time, with Ita O’Brien and Kate Lush overseeing choreography of the numerous sex and nude scenes that take place.

“There’s a lot of sex in the book; it’s very necessary to how New London society works,” Wiener says. “I had never worked with an intimacy coordinator before. I didn’t know if it was necessary or really what they do, but it made all the difference. Kate and Ita gave our actors such confidence, command and ownership of the experience of being vulnerable. You’re exposed, and they just embraced it.

“The show is not graphic but there are a lot of bodies. Sex is a part of the show. But I had no idea how valuable they would be and how they made it a safe thing to talk about. They created an atmosphere of respect. It was really liberating for the actors, and certainly liberating for the filmmakers because we felt protected. Now, I couldn’t ever imagine working without an intimacy coordinator. Everyone should.”

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By Wendy Ide

​The 12-part series was divided between two directors: Lenny Abrahamson took the first six episodes and Hettie Macdonald helmed the second tranche. Edgar-Jones pays tribute to the harmony of approach brought by two filmmakers she describes as “actor directors”.

Perhaps equally important, however, given the number of sex scenes and the weight that was placed on the sexual dynamic as a means to explore the broader relationship, was the involvement of intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien, whose input Edgar-Jones calls “invaluable”.

“I really cannot believe that’s a new thing,” she says. “I hope it becomes the norm. I know if I were ever to do a scene like that again, I wouldn’t do one without having somebody there to look after not just the actors, but also the directors and all the people who are on set. It’s important they don’t feel like they’re ever taking advantage of anyone or putting anyone out of their comfort zone.”

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By Jackson McHenry

What was it like to film Kwame’s assault? I know you all worked with an intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien, who also worked on Normal People. The scene has to make really clear the distinctions between what starts as consensual and what becomes very clearly an assault.

It was obviously intense but also kind of hilarious. Ita O’Brien’s hilarious and hands on. She’s really into using animals as examples. She’ll be showing you an example of a bonobo having sex or a video of cats or dogs having sex and will be like, “In this part of the scene, you’re a bonobo, and then in this part, you’re a horse.” It’s one of those moments where you take a step out of your consciousness and go, “Wow, is this really a job?”

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By Eleanor Stanford

​What was it like working with the show’s intimacy coordinator, Ita O’Brien?

She makes any of those scenes so chill and safe. The example she sets and the practices she keeps is what makes those scenes feel real.

I did a show awhile ago called “Press,” and Charlotte Riley and I had some sex scenes in that, and we obviously didn’t have an intimacy coordinator. It was one of my first jobs of that level onscreen.

She’d already had an amazing career, so she had the experience to get us to discuss it, ask me what I thought. But if it was the other way around, or if neither of us had had that experience, it’s fully the blind leading the blind in a situation that’s incredibly dangerous and intimate.

It’s part of a language of “I May Destroy You,” that sexuality and that physicality. And Michaela is switched on, so she wants the actors on her show to feel safe.

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