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Screen Daily: Micheal Ward on ‘Empire Of Light’ nude scenes: “If Jude Law can do it, I can do it!”

13/12/2022

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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The Guardian: ‘I want my monkey!’ Ruth Wilson on villainy, intimacy and returning to His Dark Materials

12/12/2022

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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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GQ: The Dangerous Liaisons Starz Prequel Has a Wickedly Toxic Valmont in Nicholas Denton

12/12/2022

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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 Magazine: What You Should Know About Emma Corrin

5/12/2022

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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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Insider: 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' star Jack O'Connell says he wishes he had an intimacy coordinator as a teen on 'Skins'

4/12/2022

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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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Screen Daily: Micheal Ward on ‘Empire Of Light’ nude scenes: “If Jude Law can do it, I can do it!”

The Guardian: ‘I want my monkey!’ Ruth Wilson on villainy, intimacy and returning to His Dark Materials

GQ: The Dangerous Liaisons Starz Prequel Has a Wickedly Toxic Valmont in Nicholas Denton

Interview Magazine: What You Should Know About Emma Corrin

Insider: 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' star Jack O'Connell says he wishes he had an intimacy coordinator as a teen on 'Skins'

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