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Intimacy on Set

Variety: ‘Normal People’ Creators, Actors Reveal Intimacy Process

26/8/2020

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By Naman Ramachandran

​Mescal and Edgar-Jones were part of the conversation from the very beginning in order for them to feel comfortable, Abrahamson said. As the intimate scenes were a central dimension of the story, the production worked closely with intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, who created a space where the participants were encouraged to be completely honest about a scene and speak out if they were uncomfortable.

“After the initial awkwardness of the nakedness, it became creatively satisfying,” Abrahamson said. “A lot of that awkwardness that would normally attend the entire process of shooting scenes like that in a conventional approach, a lot of that just went away.”

“The idea of shooting those scenes may be far more anxious than the actual shooting process from day to day,” said Mescal. “There’s an awkward 10 minutes when you’re like, okay, I have to be relatively naked in front of a group of strangers… from an actor’s perspective you’ve got to treat that the same way you would a scene where you’re speaking to each other.”

“Another element that I was proud that was part of the series was the equality in nudity between Paul and I, I think that’s really important,” said Edgar-Jones. “Also, if you’re trying to tell the truth about a relationship, you have to also include the truth of what that means in terms of intimacy.”

“Having a sense of why certain scenes are happening and what is being communicated meant that we could just approach them like we would approach any dialogue scene. It became about the story,” Edgar-Jones added.

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Harpers Bazaar: How I May Destroy You Navigates Consent and Trauma On-Screen

25/8/2020

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BY ROSIE HUMPHREY

As trauma reverberates through these characters’ lives, it’s important that the actors portraying them are psychologically safe and supported. That’s why Ita O’Brien, a U.K.-based intimacy coordinator, was vital to the construction of these intimate moments, choreographing each move, or “beat” as O’Brien calls it, to create a seamless structure of intimacy and realism between the actors.

To ensure this realism is enacted safely, each beat is composed down to the placement of hands or a certain number of thrusts in order to protect the actors’ emotional and physical boundaries. As the architect of safe spaces on set, O’Brien worked closely with the artist well-being practitioner, Louise Platt, a qualified psychotherapist, who was on call to provide emotional and psychological support for the actors while they performed sensitive content.

This integrated approach of therapeutic support feels quite revolutionary, as Platt mentioned on Twitter and unfortunately is a practice that, until the Me Too movement, wasn’t always followed. The infamous sex scene in Blue Is the Warmest Colour is a prominent example where actors found a sequence distressing to perform; leads Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux described the 10 grueling days of filming as “horrible” and “really suffering.” After Hollywood's awakening, O’Brien pioneered the role of intimacy coordinator and developed the Intimacy on Set guidelines to ensure that scenes of nudity, intimacy, and simulated sex are performed safely without compromising the actors’ personal boundaries.

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Huffington Post: 'A True Artist': How The Unstoppable Michaela Coel Became The Most Exciting Talent In TV - By Those Who Know Her

17/8/2020

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By Adam Bloodworth

“She’s there as a colleague, as a mate, and then she’s there jumping into the role of actor for a scene,” reflects Ita O’Brien, intimacy coordinator who worked with Michaela Coel on I May Destroy You. “And on days where she’s finished her scene she’s into her own clothes and bang, into co-director mode… And then, ‘oh sorry, I can’t have this conversation, I’ve got to go and have a production meeting’: into executive producer mode.”

This is only the briefest glimpse into what life was like for Michaela Coel during the shoot for I May Destroy You, the BBC drama which set a new precedent for how consent and sexual assault - moreover, just how lives in general - can be authentically portrayed on screen. 

Soon after, when Coel appeared on the front page of New York Magazine captioned ‘Michaela The Destroyer,’ her small but robust international fanbase felt validated. I May Destroy You has seen Coel rise to a level of fame and prominence only those closest to her could have quietly predicted. Not that anyone would have listened. 

“What’s brilliant about her is she’s calling the industry out: going ‘hold on a minute, you’re not really considering us,’” continues O’Brien of Coel. “I do feel it is groundbreaking. How Michaela writes, what she has written about, and also the fact that she’s a woman writer.

Take the scene in episode three of I May Destroy You (mild spoiler alert) where Coel’s character Arabella is hooking up with an Italian man named Biagio, who notices a blood clot in her period discharge during sex.

“The paraphernalia of a menstruation isn’t something that’s out there,” says O’Brien, who notes that half the population spend roughly half their lives engaged in a menstrual cycle, yet when has the reality of that been shown on TV before Coel?

“It’s so gratifying being part of something that is helping people have that awareness,” continues O’Brien. “Plus, when else have you seen a woman of colour with an Asian man?”

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Creative Review: HOW I WORK: INTIMACY COORDINATOR ITA O’BRIEN

12/8/2020

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The intimacy coordinator has worked on TV shows including Sex Education, Normal People and I May Destroy You to help actors feel empowered in intimate scenes on screen. She talks about her work and why brands and advertisers need to take notice of it too
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By Rebecca Fulleylove

Ita O’Brien is an intimacy coordinator and movement director for film, television and theatre. Previously a dancer and actor herself, she’s channelled this experience into creating safe, considered and consensual environments when it comes to working with intimacy, and in scenes with sexual content and nudity in film, TV and theatre. 

O’Brien has pioneered the role of intimacy coordinator and she has spent the last six years developing the Intimacy on Set Guidelines, a best practice document that covers everything from the audition process to when the actors are on set. She also founded Intimacy on Set, a service that provides intimacy coordinators, consultancy, advocacy and training for TV, film and theatre sets.  

The role of an intimacy coordinator has been put in the spotlight more recently because of O’Brien’s groundbreaking work on smash hit TV shows including Sex Education, Normal People and I May Destroy You, all of which tackle sensitive subjects around sex, intimacy and relationships. The beauty in O’Brien’s work is her ability to lay out best practice processes to ensure all parties feel safe and protected, all the while ensuring these intimate portrayals still feel authentic, engaging and a key part of the storytelling.

Here, O’Brien explains what the role of an intimacy coordinator actually involves, the challenges she’s faced and why anyone involved in portraying sex or relationships to the masses has a responsibility to do it from a position of “equality, safety and care”.

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