News & Press: Press

Netflix’s Sex Education might be peppered with NSFW scenes (which shouldn’t come as any surprise) but the cast enjoy filming them as they are all carefully choreographed.

Aimee Lou Wood, who plays Aimee Gibbs in the series, revealed that they all find it ‘really fun’ filming the show’s – often cringeworthy – sex scenes as their moves are planned in advance. 

Speaking ahead of the launch of season two, Aimee told Metro.co.uk that the cast aren’t worried about filming the graphic scenes: ‘It’s actually really fun and I find it really helpful, those sex scenes, because you’re spending a lot of time with your character.

‘You could have full days of doing those kinds of scenes, just you and the director and one other person, so it’s probably the most time that I have personally to really sit with Aimee and be with the character and get to really know who she was.’

She added that seeing how a person behaves in the bedroom helps you get to know them better, explaining: ‘It helped me inform the rest of my characterisation and the other scenes so much, doing those sex scenes, because it says so much about person, how they have sex.

‘So it’s just helpful, it informs so much. That’s why sex scenes are great if they’re done well and if they’re not gratuitous, because it’s a person in their most vulnerable state.

‘You get to feel that you really get to know the character if it’s done honestly and not, you know, mood lighting.’

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“Sex Education” – a series telling in a natural way about the first sexual experiences of a group of teenagers – is one of the productions that can boast of being on the set of an intimacy coordinator. Although this profession has appeared only recently, it is already radically changing standards in the film industry. What exactly do intimacy coordinators do? We talk about it with Ita O’Brian, a precursor in the industry. on the set of “Sex Education”.

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Marking an industry first, Netflix even hired an “intimacy director” (Ita O’Brien, who’s joined by David Thackery for season two) to guide its young stars through the more uncomfortable moments on set, and Nunn hired a “sex educator” for her (largely female) writers’ room. 

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London — Two years after the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault scandal fueled the MeToo movement, the media industry has been forced to rethink how it produces sexual content on stage and on screen. The biggest U.S. actors union adopted new guidelines for nudity and simulated sex scenes last summer, and a British directors association followed suit late last year. 

Emilia Clarke recently spoke out about pressure she felt when filming nude scenes for HBO’s Game of Thrones. HBO has since made it mandatory for crews to hire “intimacy coordinators” to consult on any scenes involving intimacy. 

TV, film and theater have always recruited specialists to consult on fight sequences, stunts and even historical context. Now intimacy coordinators are increasingly being called upon to help make sure actors portraying sex scenes feel physically and psychologically safe at they work.

“Just like a stunt coordinator, you’re bringing techniques to keep the actor safe… you’re mitigating the risk” says Ita O’Brien, one of the U.K’s leading intimacy coordinators and founder of Intimacy On Set. Her intimacy guidelines have been adopted by British actors union Equity U.K. 
O’Brien has worked with shows including Netflix’s Sex Education and BBC/HBO’s Gentleman Jack. She sees herself as “a mediator of consent, to ensure that every touch and every reaction is comfortable and consensual for all parties involved.”

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Ita O’Brien advises actors and directors on sex scenes. A conversation about the similarities between love scenes and stunts, the need to catch up in the industry and professionals who refuse help.

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Listen to the BBC World at One Interview with Ita O’Brien, from December 2019.

British film and TV directors have been issued with guidelines on simulated sex scenes and nudity, with industry figures saying they will help the UK catch up with the US and eradicate “grey areas” that leave actors vulnerable to exploitation.

Directors UK, the professional association for screen directors in Britain, issued the 96 guidelines, which are meant to create “clear and shared professional expectations” with the aim that they will become standard working practice within the industry.

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In her role, Mackey’s character has sex on screen numerous time and the actress, 23, said she was initially “taken aback” by the explicitness of the script.

Speaking on Belstaff’s The Road Less Travelled podcast, hosted by Reggie Yates, Mackey said: “The first time I even read the script, I was like ‘I don’t know if I can do this’. Regardless, I never thought I was going to get the part in the first place.

​“I was like ‘you might as well just try’ but reading the script, I was so taken aback by it. I was like ‘I can’t, I don’t know if I can’. I was quite prudish about it all anyway.

“Luckily like we were just really well looked after from start to finish, even before we started filming, we were given all of these tools by Ita O’Brien, who’s the intimacy coordinator.”

She added: “The tools we were given were specifically to prevent any sort of like, trauma post-sex scene. We were given all these tools like psychical consent and we choreographed it quite significantly.” 

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For the genuinely romantic depictions of sex on screen, actors and directors can face a myriad of challenges. Film sets are often packed, demanding, and tiring. It’s only in the last few years that a specified role to guide and coach actors for love scenes has become mainstream. Intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien worked on Netflix’s “Sex Education,” as well as HBO’s “Watchmen.” We attended one of Ita’s workshops in South London to find out how sex scenes are co-ordinated in movies.

Approaching the second anniversary of the Harvey Weinstein revelations, the London Film Festival hosted a panel discussion about the rise of the intimacy coordinator on film and TV sets. In the wake of the MeToo movement, is the industry finally waking up to consent and the comfort of cast and crews?

Introduced by Anna Bogutskaya (who reminded the audience that intimacy “isn’t just the sexy bits”), the panel featured Pink Wall writer-director Tom Cullen, actor and Instinct director Halina Reijn, and intimacy coordinators Yarit Dor (Adult Material) and Ita O’Brien (Sex Education).

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