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Lad Bible: Sex Education Creators Hired A Dedicated ‘Intimacy Director’ To Help Coordinate Sex Scenes

21/1/2020

Taylor and Nunn approached a woman called Ita O'Brien, who set up a company called Intimacy on Set, which provides 'services to TV, film and theatre when dealing with intimacy, sexual content and nudity'.

"When we first started making series one, when we met we said, 'I wonder if a character like this exists'," Taylor explained, referring to the possibility of someone who could help with how intimate scenes are conducted.

"After a bit of research we found this lady called Ita O'Brien who came in and met us. We told her what we were making and how we wanted to approach it, and the sort of duty of care of what is primarily a really young cast - and that there were some quite difficult and specific scenes written.

"She came to us very much on the same page, as she had a manifesto that was sort of it tied in with the #MeToo movement.

"It was something that a number of people had been working towards - the way she explained is that if you have a fight scene on a show you have a fight coordinator, and if you have a dance scene in a show you have a choreographer, and why do we not approach intimacy scenes like that?

"That's the role that she and her team fulfil, which they are there to help you do it really well, help you do it really safely and they take care of the cast and the crew before during and after those scenes and hopefully take away some of the fear and anxiety that can come up around shooting sex scenes."

Taylor explained that since hiring O'Brien for the first series, she's seen her line of work 'boom', and she's had to grow her team.

Taylor said: "She's at the forefront of it - she's now the busiest woman in show business.

"During this series she just wasn't always available, so she has since trained up other people.

"An amazing guy called David [Thackery] came on board and did several days with us.

"It was great, it was a big help to the new cast this year, but also continue support the old cast who were used to having Ita around."

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Vice: The Stars of 'Sex Education' Learned a Lot from Acting Like Mating Slugs

20/1/2020

"It was a real support," said Gatwa. "We never felt alone. They could be quite isolating and scary and intimidating, those scenes, but you always felt you had someone in your corner."

Prior to filming, Gatwa explained, O'Brien led a workshop in which the actors broke the ice by emulating various animals mating. They gathered and pretended to be monkeys, lions, slugs, and other members of the animal kingdom straight up doing the deed.

It was to help us loosen up a bit and get to know each other, but also it helped us think about how sex is so personal and everyone has a rhythm, or noise style. So it helped us find your character’s animal, so to speak," said Butterfield. "It’s not like you’re going to have sex like a monkey or slug, but you just use bits of it."

Gatwa thinks the mission behind Sex Education is important. ""As much as sex positivity is great, teenagers feel a lot of pressure. You need to learn how to fall in love with your body as well, and you’re doing that as a teenager," he said. "These storylines are so empowering. It’s an honour that we get to portray them."

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The Telegraph: Sex Education’s Emma Mackey, interview: ‘We’re lucky our show isn’t about ridiculously passionate intercourse’

20/1/2020

“I’m really glad I had Sex Ed to kick me off, because on Eiffel I’m naked,” she says. Sex Education was among the first shows to publicly announce the appointment of an “intimacy coordinator”, Ita O’Brien, to coach young actors through delicate scenes and safeguard against any pre-MeToo behaviour on set. O’Brien’s first ice-breaker for the cast was to have them watch videos of animals having sex, and attempt to imitate them. The stars could find the animal they felt best meshed with their character, and choreograph their sex scenes accordingly. “Honestly, I was watching it thinking, what the hell is this job? It’s absurd,” says Mackey. “But it was also a really good way of bonding. It was a great day, like being part of some really odd drama school.”

Does Mackey think O’Brien’s role is necessary? “Yes, it totally demystifies and desensationalises what might be a really intimidating sex scene. And getting to know each other beforehand is a real luxury, because sometimes you rock up and you have to film an intimate scene and strike up chemistry with an actor you’ve never met before in your life. Luckily, too, our show isn’t about ridiculously passionate, romantic sexual intercourse.”

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Hollywood Reporter: 'Sex Education': How an Intimacy Coordinator Helped Change the Show's Approach to Love Scenes

19/1/2020

The show’s commitment to approaching female pleasure in an unbiased, non-judgmental way shouldn’t be surprising considering Sex Education was the first Netflix series to employ use of an intimacy coordinator. Ita O’Brien, a trained dancer, actress, movement director and intimacy coordinator, helped develop the Intimacy On Set Guidelines that have sparked a change in the way TV and film approach filming scene simulating sex and nudity. While O’Brien spent years training theater groups in these practices and developing the now widely referenced guidelines, Sex Education marked the first series to seriously use her expertise.

“The idea of creating time and space for rehearsal of the intimate content wasn't there, and there was pushback from that. The production, if there's a fight or a dance, they will make time, they'll know they have to put in a schedule time to choreograph, time to rehearse, and that's the shift that we were asking for in the industry,” O’Brien explains.

It was an ask that Sex Education director Ben Taylor eagerly said yes to.

O’Brien held a workshop for the cast a crew a few weeks before filming began. “I share how the guidelines work, and then they get up on stage doing a warmup,” O’Brien says. “Each of the actors look at the different scenes that they had and then I put them into groups, and we worked through the various scenes, helping them find the structure, the guidelines. And it was a joyous day, it was so lovely. And, of course, in asking people to get hot and sweaty together, physical work just helps to make a connection with each other, to help to open that ensemble feeling.”

From there, O’Brien stays in constant contact with the actors, directors, assistance directors, and wardrobe technicians, mapping out scenes away from set, walking talent through choreography, and assisting on the day of shooting, acting as an advocate for the young cast members, many of whom have never filmed an intimate scene before.

For Wood, who got her big break playing the lovable Aimee, having O’Brien there to guide her through the mechanics of shooting a sex scene like the one series one opens on, meant she could forget about any embarrassing hang-ups and focus on acting out her character’s desires in the moment.

“I feel really grateful and also quite sad for the people who didn't have that because even if the director is amazing and open and lovely like any of the directors on Sex Ed, it is still nice to have someone who you can run stuff by,” Wood says.

One hurdle she still encounters when working with directors, something she hopes seeing how Sex Education handles its intimate moments will change, is the myth that an intimacy coordinator is there to stifle spontaneity.

“Some of the fear from directors is that if you choreograph the scene, one, you're taking away their direction, and two, that you're stopping creativity but actually, it's the reverse,” O’Brien explains. “I'm not directing them how to act, what I'm doing is giving a shape, a pure form; there is agreement and consent to touch and there's a clear shape to the physical journey. And then it means the actors are free to then act. The actors can be comfortable and free to bring different aspects to each and every take because there's a clear physical frame, they know that where they're touching their fellow actor is okay, they know that they're not going to be touched anywhere that's not okay for them, so they really can release into enjoying serving a scene.”

It’s something Wood thinks helped her character’s sex scenes come across more authentically which, in turn, helps young women watching the show to identify with their own sexual desires.

“I want people to watch it and relate,” Wood says. “Not watch it and go, ‘Oh, why is this girl wanking in a private space with sexy lingerie on looking all made up?’ The desire for it to be relatable and human kind overrides the vanity.”

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Metro: Sex Education’s intimacy co-ordinator explains BTS secrets to ‘realistic’ sex scenes

18/1/2020

Sex Education doesn’t shy away from raunchy scenes seeing Otis and the gang get steamy between the sheets. But while both teenage angst and dreams are at the heart of the binge-worthy series, we can’t help but feel some of the more seductive scenarios might get awkward on set. Talking about the secrets behind those ‘realistic’ sex scenes, intimacy co-ordinator (yes, that’s a thing) Ita O’Brien has opened up on how they keep the cast as comfortable as possible.

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The Observer: How movie sex scenes really work

18/1/2020

O'Brien told news.com.au that one of the significant developments in the industry brought on by the MeToo movement and multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein was that it had "invited a positive 'no' in the industry".

"We want to know your 'no'. We want to know what's not suitable for you as a person, and we can work creatively with an actor with your agreement and consent and help the production. When we work from a clear 'yes' from the actors, it'll be a way better sex scene because the actor can be free, they can be open, which you can see from the scenes in Sex Education."

Intimacy co-ordinators like O'Brien are also skilled to choreograph the intimate content - that could involve where camera angles might go or where legs are placed.

"We have an understanding of physicality, body movements and anatomy, and of an actor's process and how they can serve the script," she said.

Ideally, O'Brien would be able to have time during rehearsals to go through the process, but she has found that "old school people" are still resistant to what she brings.

"They have short shrift for the work and don't really understand or want to understand. It's very frustrating when productions are calling us in and wanting the role there, but then I come up against resistance of actually implementing the work on set.

"One of the misunderstood parts of my job is what we take up too much time or we're taking something away from the director."

O'Brien said all she was asking for on set was 10 or 15 minutes to rehearse the intimate content.

"And then once you get in front of the camera, your actors can be free because they know they can trust where they're going to be touched and where they're touching their fellow actor," she said.

She said when she was not given the time to rehearse, it often made for an awkward scene.

"If the choreography isn't there, the audience will say (it) doesn't look real," she said.

"I had a situation the other day where, by the third scene, the director gave me no time to work with the actor. I went away thinking that scene isn't going to read.

"Very often the director is challenged because they have a whole lot of things to get through, but it's mad to skip that bit when you know that scene isn't going to be the scene it could be if they had allowed us to bring in our skills and support them."

Still, O'Brien said that despite the regressive forces, the industry was changing. She said she had worked on many productions in 2019 and been "rushed off her feet".

The company she founded, Intimacy on Set, counts three intimacy co-ordinators in training in Australia including dancer Chloe Dallimore and actor Michala Banas.

O'Brien added that Sex Education, filmed in Wales and starring Gillian Anderson, Asa Butterfield and Ncuti Gatwa, had been a joy to work on and hoped it would become a model for how productions can work with intimacy co-ordinators, especially when there are young actors involved.

"It's exploring so many different aspects of our lovemaking, not just for young people but for us as a whole," she said.

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Vice: The Stars of 'Sex Education' Learned a Lot from Acting Like Mating Slugs

17/1/2020

Butterfield even credits his time working on the series with helping him feel more comfortable talking about sex, and realizing "that it's all normal. You don't have to be embarrassed by it." What has also helped him and other cast members not just open up more, but create a more comfortable and safe space for filming sexual scenes was having intimacy director Ita O'Brien on set.

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The Screenster Podcast: Intimacy on Set with Ita O'Brien

17/1/2020

Intimacy Coordinator and Movement Director, Ita O'Brien, joins the podcast this week to talk about her work which involves establishing best practice when dealing with intimacy, sexual content and nudity in film, television and theatre. Georgie finds out about the brilliant productions Ita has worked on, such as 'Sex Education' on Netflix and why the work of Intimacy Coordinators is so important in this industry.

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London Post: Sex Education’s intimacy coordinator comes to Elephant & Castle

16/1/2020

With Netflix’s Sex Education returning to our screens next week, Ita O’Brien, the show’s expert intimacy coordinator, will be in Elephant & Castle’s London College of Communication (UAL) for a seminar on how actors and directors work to support the actor.

The industry is now embracing intimacy coordination on set and stage with the help of experts like O’Brien, to provide support to the industry in the post #MeToo landscape.

The seminar will cover:

Best practice when working with intimacy, simulated sex scenes, and nudity
A discussion on how intimacy affects roles, and how actors can work together to create a safer space
Date: Monday 27th January

Time: 14:00-17:00

Where: London College of Communication, Lecture Theatre A, Elephant & Castle, London, SE1 6SB (Nearest tube station: Elephant & Castle)

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Evening Standard: Aimee Lou Wood: Sex Education role made me embrace embarrassment

14/1/2020

The show has been celebrated for its candid — read: graphic — depiction of sex. Netflix employed an intimacy director, Ita O’Brien, on set to ensure the cast always felt safe; consented without pressure; and were able to discuss where they were and weren’t comfortable being touched.

O’Brien’s methods include a workshop, where cast members could practise impressions of animals having sex. This wasn’t just a riotous icebreaker, Wood says. “[Ita’s] going, ‘Oh yeah, I do thrusts as a bonobo monkey’, and you’re like, ‘OK, that’s cool because it’s distancing me from the character’.

“So this is Aimee Gibbs having sex, not Aimee Lou Wood.” She adds that the sensitivity is game-changing. “You don’t want to feel vulnerable, like your skin has been stripped off, and then watch it back and go, ‘Why did I do that? I wasn’t comfortable, and now the whole world can see it’.” For that crumpet scene, “the vain part of me was like, ‘This is so embarrassing’,” says Wood.

“But then I was like, ‘I’d much rather this, wearing days-of-the-week pants, in a big pink T-shirt, in unflattering positions and grunting, so that girls feel seen’.” Rather than? “Rather than watching some person in Victoria’s Secret lingerie with a bit of sweat dripping down her chest. That’s bullshit.”

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