The BBC has made intimacy co-ordinators mandatory for all its television programmes after actors including Michaela Coel said they were essential to filming sex scenes safely.
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s director of television, has told external production companies that co-ordinators “must be engaged” when filming scenes of an intimate nature.
The edict came in an update to the BBC’s on-set bullying and harassment policies, which have been overhauled in light of TV’s “MeToo moment” — the allegations of sexual misconduct against Noel Clarke, the former Doctor Who actor. He denies wrongdoing.
“Like you, we find the recent revelations of bullying and sexual harassment within our industry totally unacceptable,” Moore told some of the BBC’s top suppliers. “We are fully committed to ensuring that everyone working on a production for the BBC feels safe.”
The likes of Daisy Edgar-Jones, star of Normal People, and Phoebe Dynevor, who featured in Bridgerton, have praised the benefits of intimacy coaches. Coel dedicated her best actress Bafta award to Ita O’Brien, who co-ordinated intimate scenes on I May Destroy You, which Coel also wrote. “If you don’t have people like Ita on set when you’re shooting things like that, it’s quite thoughtless, inconsiderate, and it shows a lack of mindfulness,” she said.
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In the same way that stunt co-ordinators choreograph fight scenes, intimacy co-ordinators choreograph sex scenes. The role has become increasingly prominent on film sets since the scandal involving the producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017.
O’Brien said the BBC’s decision to mandate the position was a “game-changer” for the industry. “It sends a very clear message that one of the beacons of our industry is getting behind this,” she added. “I hope everybody will follow.”
Asked about the work she does with actors during a simulated sex scene, O’Brien explained: “You don’t ever want pubic bone bashing on pubic bone, so we’re using techniques about understanding energy through the body. You’re looking at lifting a thigh, pulling a hip in towards a thigh, having a rhythm. Once you’ve given that structure a few times, then you can just stand back and the actors then can take it where they need to.”
O’Brien also works with producers and directors to check scenes after they have been filmed.
“I’ve had producers saying to me, ‘Oh God, I don’t want an actor saying they’ve got a bit of cellulite on their thigh, so we can’t use that’.
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“It’s not about that,” she added. “It’s about actors being able to see what the content is so they’re not shocked. The intention is that it doesn’t make them vulnerable when it goes out to the world.”
