HBO’s Many Sex Scenes Will Now Staff an Intimacy Coordinator

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, HBO is taking huge strides to make sure actors are comfortable on set, particularly during sex scenes. From now on, all HBO shows and films will have an intimacy coordinator — a trained professional who ensures that the network is creating a safe environment — on hand during all intimate scenes, which can include anything from kissing to full-blown sex. The practice first began on the set of The Deuce Season 2, where the network’s first intimacy coordinator, Alicia Rodis, advocated for the show’s actors, choreographed intimate moments, and facilitated discussions to make sure that “consent is informed and certain before we move forward.”

HBO’s practice of having an intimacy coordinator on set started about a year ago, when The Deuce actress Emily Meade (she plays young porn star Lori) demanded that the network provide some sort of assistance to actors performing difficult scenes. HBO execs listened, and they found Rodis through a nonprofit called Intimacy Directors International, a group she co-founded in 2016 that aims to create a set of global standards for executing sex scenes. Rodis immediately began working with The Deuce showrunner David Simon and his crew — and she must have been on set a lot, because the show follows the prostitution and porn industry in 1970s New York — in various capacities. According to a Rolling Stone feature on Rodis, on any given day, she could be serving as a mediator among actors, directors, and producers; reviewing scripts; meeting with actors about upcoming scenes; choreographing sex scenes; and more.

“It’s not the things [she does] that are so radical,” Meade told Rolling Stone. “It’s just having someone other than yourself to think about it. It shouldn’t be a radical concept to give someone something to cover their private parts. But to have someone do it at all — the gesture of it — it helps.” Both the actors and Simon himself have said that having a professional on set changes the dynamic for the better. In fact, Simon felt so strongly about Rodis’ work that he said he would never “work without an intimacy coordinator again.” Said Simon, “The truth is, we knew we were asking a lot of actors and directors and crew in terms of professionalism and to deliver this material bluntly and honestly. But you can ask all you want — at a certain point everybody has to trust everybody.”

It seems that HBO agrees. On Thursday, the network’s PR account shared the Rolling Stone feature, saying, “All HBO programs with intimate scenes will be staffed by an intimacy coordinator.”

The network has already implemented this practice on their current projects. After completing her work on The Deuce Season 2, Rodis began overseeing scenes on Crashing, Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen series, and the highly-anticipated Deadwood film. When she’s not on set, Rodis trains other professionals to work on Cinemax drama Jett and HBO’s Euphoria, a high school drama produced by Drake.

Great move, HBO. Netflix, you’re next.

Watch The Deuce on HBO