Blog Archives - Intimacy on Set

The Irish Times: Normal People Class of 2020: The nine college friends in the series

31/5/2020

By Jennifer O'Connell

Sue Mythen
Role: Deputy intimacy co-ordinator

Sue Mythen joined the Lir Academy in 2011, the year after it opened, and is its director of movement. She was brought in by intimacy coach, Ita O’Brien, to work on some of the later scenes in the series.

“My biggest pride is that we had nine Lir Academy graduates in it, and to be able to move from being their teacher into being their colleague was a lovely progression,” she says.

The challenge for everyone working on the series was “how to tell an entire physical story through the movement work, and intimacy work has always been part of that.”

The importance of movement in acting can be seen, she says, in everything Paul Mescal does, “in every scene where we see him not being able to articulate, he has had to convey the inner life of the character through very subtle breathing patterns, or movement of the eyes. His face is always alive with who he is on the inside.”

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CBC: Sex on screen: behind Normal People's acclaimed intimate scenes

29/5/2020

Aruna Dutt

Simulated sex scenes have often made stars feel pressured, such as in the cases of Game of Thrones Emilia Clarke and or threatened, in the case of Frida star Salma Hayek. In the worst case scenario such as Maria Schneider in The Last Tango in Paris, it can also mean a very real assault.

In the best-case scenario with a closed set, O'Brien describes sex scenes as being done in an "unconscious place," and that afterwards, actors would meet up and have to act like it never happened.

Instead, O'Brien says, "I want people to be proud of their work," which is exactly what was accomplished with Normal People's Daisy Edgar-Jones (as Marianne) and Paul Mescal (Connell).

Before Normal People, neither actor had done sex scenes this way, they said in a recent interview with Dazed. Edgar-Jones described the experience with O"Brien: "Ita was so wonderful. She took the pressure off completely. The scenes ended up being quite positive."

Mescal agreed: "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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The Irish World: Talking about sex

28/5/2020

“One of the key parts of the process was working with an intimacy co-ordinator called Ita O’Brien. A lot of conversation went into those scenes but part of the process of having an intimacy co-ordinator is that everything gets mapped out, everything is pre-agreed so that when you go into those scenes the actors know what they’re doing and why they’re doing it and nothing within that scene is going to make them feel uncomfortable.

“Obviously they’re two young actors. Paul has not done TV work before so there’s a huge amount of responsibility of putting them in that situation and making sure that was all treated in a really serious and sensitive way. That was a big part of creating that scene, I think.”

Lenny continues: “The temptation in an adaptation would be to have her arrive, they start to talk and then to cut to them making love but we were just trying to tell the story like the love making is a continuation of everything that went before and really just watch them together exploring that new phase of their relationship.

“That felt like an exciting and worthwhile thing to try and do on screen. We talked a lot before we did any of the sex scenes.

“We all understand the notion of life drawing and the body and of what choreography is so to get past the embarrassment and the complex and confusing quality that can arise if you’re doing an intimate scene is really to understand what you’re doing and that everybody participates in that choreography.

“Nobody feels like their own intimate life is somehow asked to be produced, it’s not that at all. It’s like a dance. Once we understood that, once we all talked it through and why we were doing it the way we were doing it and what it meant, those scenes became very relaxing to do. They stopped being embarrassing in any way and that was just amazing for me. I felt like everybody felt they were empowered and had a stake in making it feel real and good, and everybody was creatively involved in it.

“It was a very positive experience and a lot of the credit goes to the ways Ita has developed to make sense of that kind of work in the context of the actors and the crew.”

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The New European: The new normal: How the series took lockdown by storm

28/5/2020

Normal People employed ‘intimacy coordinator’ Ita O’Brien to help with the sex scenes. It’s a job that has become more common on film sets in the era of #MeToo but was new to director Lenny Abrahamson and to Guiney. “We were concerned it would get in the way of what the actors wanted to do, but in fact, it was like using a choreographer or stunt director and made us able to recreate the intimacy in the book.

“It’s very much about the intellectual and emotional connection between Marianne and Connell and their physical connection is an extension of that, so we wanted the sex scenes to be just like a continuation of the conversation, of their dialogue and that’s what our intimacy coordinator did so brilliantly.

“It made it all so much more grown-up and professional and allowed us to really get on with filming. It puts everyone at ease, I think. We’re very proud of it because it’s something fresh and not seen before on TV, and I’m thrilled we went there and pulled it off.”

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The Guardian: Paapa Essiedu: 'Michaela Coel captures the reality of lives that I recognise'

25/5/2020

By Claire Armitstead - "I May Destroy You"

For Essiedu, this means a deep dive into what masculinity means when its boundaries are broken, not by racist thugs or harassing police, but by demons unleashed by its own desires. “I’m into everything,” boasts Kwame on another casual date, minutes before he is reduced to pleading: “Not that.” The representation of the moment when good sex turns bad is so up-close and personal that I wonder if he had any doubts about taking on the role?

“I’ve done scenes before where we’ve had nothing to support us and it’s so stressful,” he admits. “But I didn’t have any qualms, mainly because of how sensitively it was handled – like we have an intimacy coordinator at all times. We spent a lot of time in preparation for those scenes.”

The intimacy co-ordinator was Ita O’Brien, who also worked on the BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People. For all that it is being hyped as a #MeToo drama, Essiedu rejects the idea that I May Destroy You is “pandering to a zeitgeisty type thing”. Obviously, he says, “it’s a series that confronts and challenges our current ideas around sex and consent and romance, and our responses to trauma as well. But a lot of it is inspired by things that have actually happened.” In 2018 Coel spoke out about being assaulted. “Michaela is jumping from a place of authenticity,” Essiedu continues. “She captures the reality of lives that I recognise.”

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Evening Standard: From Normal People to Gentleman Jack: Sex on TV is getting better for everyone

22/5/2020

And yet now, as the windows steam up, things in the background are changing. Movement and intimacy director Ita O’Brien has been developing best practice when working on TV sex scenes, founding Intimacy on Set to provide trained professional intimacy co-ordinators to the industry. She has since noticed a tonal shift in sex scenes, with moments of intimacy captured on camera now more commonly being used to propel the narrative rather than simply to titillate.

She believes that the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the upheaval it caused across the industry also led to questions about how actors can perform intimate content in a safe and a responsible way. “Intimacy guidelines are about taking away that mismatch of power on set,” O’Brien says. “The structure allows everyone to work to the best of their skill in order to create intimate content that serves the writing. After Weinstein, the industry said they had to do better and work with respect, and within that environment, they had to observe how to perform intimate content well.

“In newer productions, the intimate content is absolutely part of the core, the integral essence of what the storytelling is about... Through intimate content now, we’re able to better serve the writing and really serve storytelling.” She cites the example of Normal People, in which the intimate content tells as much about the characters as other scenes.

An influx of female talent into the television industry has also seen a further emphasis on women’s pleasure during sex scenes. Netflix’s Sex Education, written by Laurie Nunn, and Sally Wainwright’s Gentleman Jack are two examples to which O’Brien has brought her expertise.

“I worked with director Kate Herron for Sex Education’s masturbation montage, which I’m so proud of,” she says. “We spoke about how important it was that we showed that normalness and the joy of discovering yourself as a young woman. I met with Aimee Lou Wood, who acted the scene, and she was saying that she gets 100 texts a day about it.

"With Gentleman Jack, on our rehearsal day we had all the actresses doing the scene, and we had Sally Wainwright, the writer, and the director of the scene.” She says they all felt it was a “radical” moment.

“We were making sure this intimate content, particularly with a lesbian scene, had that female gaze and female perspective. We interrogated what is female love-making — and how different it looks from a male gaze.”

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Metro: Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal weren’t actually naked in most sex scenes

20/5/2020

By Abigail Gillibrand

And while there might have been more than 40 minutes of sex scenes across the entire 12 episodes – it turns out the stars of the show Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones barely got their kit off IRL. Talking on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail podcast, Daisy, who plays Marianne in the soon-to-be iconic series, opened up on how they filmed the intimate scenes – with a little help from sex coordiator Ita O’Brien. ‘Ita would make sure Paul and I would discuss the boundaries and what we were and were not comfortable with,’ the 21-year-old explained. ‘We also agreed on touch and would say, “this area is fine but please stay off this area,” or, “I don’t feel comfortable with this.”‘ . .

Daisy went onto say how for the majority of the time they were covered up, and only took their clothes off for the wider shots. She added: ‘Depending on what shots they were filming we were allowed to wear modesty gear so for a large amount of it we were fully clothed. ‘Then for the wide shot we would make sure we felt comfortable and there was enough protection as possible and then yeah, from action to cut we were able to freestyle knowing what the boundaries were and we were able to act the scene.’

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New Yorker: How “Normal People” Makes Us Fall in Love

18/5/2020

By Anna Russell

The series was directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald, and adapted by Alice Birch, Mark O’Rowe, and Rooney herself, which might explain why it hews so faithfully to the novel. Rooney has sometimes likened writing sex scenes to writing dialogue, in the sense that every beat counts. The same care is evident onscreen, where every fumbling and tentative caress seems heavy with meaning. These scenes were achieved with the help of Ita O’Brien, an intimacy coördinator who also worked on Netflix’s “Sex Education.” O’Brien helped the actors to discuss things frankly, and to avoid euphemisms. “She would say, ‘We’ll just discuss exactly what the emotional beats are here,’ ” Edgar-Jones said. “The whole point of those scenes is never to have just a moment for the sake of it. They’re always carrying on some form of narrative.”

O’Brien also helped with the physical logistics, Mescal added. Sometimes, to get a scene right, Mescal would need to hold himself in a kind of plank above Edgar-Jones for minutes on end, his arms locked out, sweat dripping from his nose. (“That was really great,” Edgar-Jones joked.) “There was this wonderful thing where she would use her hands,” Mescal said, of O’Brien, holding up his hands to demonstrate. “She’d be like, ‘So, Paul, I need you to give more thrust!’ ” Edgar-Jones made the same motion with her hands, and they both burst into laughter.

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The One Show (BBC): Alex Jones and Alex Scott are joined by actors Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones, the stars of the hugely popular BBC Three drama ‘Normal People’

18/5/2020

Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones on shooting intimate scene for Normal people and working with Intimacy Coordinator, Ita O'Brien @ 21 minutes

Hot Press: Normal People, Teenagers and Sex

15/5/2020

BY: TANIS SMITHER

One of the other triumphs of Normal People in its portrayal of sex is the relatively equal ratio of female-to-male nudity created by directors Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald. There is little doubt that the involvement of Ita O’Brien, Normal People’s on-set intimacy coordinator (a profession that has exploded in popularity and necessity in the wake of the #MeToo movement) made a real difference here.

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Austin Chronicle: Review: Normal People

15/5/2020

BY SELOME HAILU

The production team includes Ita O’Brien as Intimacy Coach, who directed the on-screen believability and off-screen ethics of the sex scenes. Unsurprisingly, as O’Brien also coordinated intimacy in Netflix’s hit series Sex Education, her work pays off here. Sex in Normal People is unlike anything on TV in recent memory. Time in bed begins and ends, unlike impersonal and all-too-common sex montages that fail to communicate what intimacy really means to each character.

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Shoot: Perspectives From Directors Derek Cianfrance, Lenny Abrahamson, Morten Tyldum On Their Emmy-Contending Series

15/5/2020

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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Irish Examiner: Normal People director talks sex scenes and doing justice to Sally Rooney's novel

15/5/2020

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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RTE: Paul Mescal on Normal People: "I am very proud of what we have done"

15/5/2020

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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Vanity Fair: The Naked Truth: Inside Normal People’s Explicit Sex Scenes

13/5/2020

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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Today FM Dermot & Dave: Interview with Ita O'Brien

12/5/2020

ABC: Sarah Macdonald interviews Ita O'Brien about her work on Normal People

12/5/2020

RTE Radio 1: Brendan O'Connor interviews Ita O'Brien

10/5/2020

India Times Post: Normal People's Paul Mescal admits he had no qualms with stripping off for racy sex scenes

9/5/2020

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.’

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Irish Mirror: Lenny Abrahamson admits he was nervous directing intimate sex scenes with young actors in Normal People

9/5/2020

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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The Hindu: ‘Normal People’ review: A masterclass in understanding the different facets of intimacy

9/5/2020

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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GQ: How Normal People, the Sexiest Show on TV, Gets the Details Right

7/5/2020

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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Vogue: How Do Sex Scenes On Film Actually Work? Normal People’s Intimacy Co-ordinator Shares All

7/5/2020

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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The Guardian: Sex has as much meaning as words: how Normal People handles intimacy

6/5/2020

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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Variety: ‘Normal People’ Heartthrob Paul Mescal Answers All Your Burning Questions About Connell’s Chain

5/5/2020

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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