Category: Variety

Variety: Chris Pine Talks Working With an Intimacy Coordinator on ‘All the Old Knives’ and Waiting to See a ‘Star Trek 4’ Script

10/3/2022

By Marc Malkin

Janus told me it was the first time you ever worked with an intimacy coordinator.

I had never done that before. You’re doing a sex scene in a bedroom and you have this older woman that’s watching and giving your notes on how to do the sex scene and I’m thinking, “Who is this person telling me how to have sex?” [Laughs.] But it was wonderful. She was lovely. It just takes the pressure off. There’s just no discomfort, because you have someone like a referee making sure it’s all above board and everyone is comfortable. She’s also like a choreographer making sure it all translates well on screen like, “Move your neck” or “Arch your back more.”

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Variety: Leading Intimacy Coordinator Ita O’Brien Discusses Job Challenges, Reveals Assault By a Director

13/12/2021

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By K.J. Yossman

Leading intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien, who has worked on projects including “I May Destroy You” and “Normal People,” among others, has revealed she was once assaulted by a director while working on set.

O’Brien, who started her career as a dancer and movement director, was discussing the challenges of her work — including the resistance she sometimes encounters from creatives and crew — during producers’ conference Focus London.

In the beginning of her move into intimacy coordination, which was around 2015, O’Brien said productions invited her in “because they knew they really wanted” her experience and input. However, that was followed by a “middle period,” just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic starting in early 2020, when she was often met with resistance on set.

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

5/5/2020

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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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Variety: Chris Pine Talks Working With an Intimacy Coordinator on ‘All the Old Knives’ and Waiting to See a ‘Star Trek 4’ Script

Variety: Leading Intimacy Coordinator Ita O’Brien Discusses Job Challenges, Reveals Assault By a Director

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

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

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