Will 'Intimacy Coordinators' Change the Future of Sex Scenes in Hollywood?

As jury deliberations continue in the trial of big budget movie producer Harvey Weinstein, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has signaled it wants to institutionalize more sensitive approaches to  simulating intimacy on set.

Last month, the guild released new standards and protocols for the work of intimacy coordinators, a growing industry of professionals who help choreograph scenes that depict sexual behavior in movies and TV.

"The best practice around when to use us is whenever there are scenes involving any level of nudity — and then, of course, any type of simulated sex," said Amanda Blumenthal, an intimacy coordinator who helped the guild put together the new standards.

Blumenthal's website lists a number of specific scenarios during which intimacy coordinators can be useful, like "coordinating with departments such as costumes and makeup to make sure that the actors are provided with appropriate nudity garments and prosthetics."

Intimacy coordinators, or ICs, can play a role in all kinds of intimate scenes, including “groping of breasts over clothing, heavy make out sessions, first kisses for minors and things like that," said Blumenthal.

"A lot of people don't realize that there are many younger actors who have their first kiss on screen, and that can be a really sensitive and tender situation that should be handled with care,” she said.

Scenes with simulated sexual violence are also part of intimacy coordinators' work.

Productions across studios, networks and genres are using IC services, including the new television series, Star Trek: Picard. This is thanks, in part, to one of its stars, veteran actress Michelle Hurd. Hurd is a member of Time’s Up and also worked with SAG-AFTRA on the new protocols.

"We’re talking about people. We're talking about physical contact," Hurd told KQED. "These scenes need to be handled with kid gloves and choreographed."

The new standards strive to lay a foundation, Hurd added, “to enable and empower the actors to feel confident and strong and comfortable."

Shifting the Culture on Set

Intimacy coordinators have been working on sets for a while now, but SAG-AFTRA decided to formalize their role with new protocols to give ICs a more official platform and to help raise awareness within the industry.

“It’s hard for the whole concept to find space in the entertainment industry and to find a path to flourish and to grow without there being a standard understanding of what we’re talking about and what it means,” said David White, national executive director of SAG-AFTRA.

Some of the new guidelines include:

• Standards for training for intimacy coordinators, including gender and sexual diversity sensitivity training and an understanding of guild and union contracts that impact simulated sex.
• Guidelines for resolving discrepancies in expectations between actors and productions around scenes involving intimacy.
• Guidelines for on-set assistance, including enforcing continued consent throughout filming.

White is careful to point out that the guild is not making intimacy coordinators mandatory. He said there will be time in the future to integrate coordinators into collective bargaining agreements, but that's not the point of the guild's recent move.

Both White and SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris acknowledged the potential for pushback from filmmakers for both creative and financial reasons.

Carteris, who is also an actor, recounted a conversation she'd had with a female director who was initially resistant to including an intimacy coordinator on a recent project — the director worried that an extra facilitator might interfere with her vision and rapport with the actors.

But that's not what happened, said Carteris.

“That director said to me, ‘I was able to share my vision, work [with the] actor, but also pay attention to everybody else in the set, knowing that the actor had somebody who [was] there one-on-one with them regarding any concerns they might have',” said Carteris.

Another potential obstacle to incorporating intimacy coordinators on set regularly is that they add another line item to project budgets.

“It’s very unusual for the [filmmaking] community to embrace the idea of a new cost to a production,” said White.

But Hurd said that if there is nudity or intimacy in a script, producers should build accommodations into their budgets to allow for “more care-taking to our artists... as they are put into vulnerable positions that will be... there on screen and film or digital for the rest of their lives.”

Hurd's own experience may inform her commitment to instill more sensitivity on sets. In 2014, she spoke out about Bill Cosby treating her inappropriately during the filming of the television show, The Cosby Mysteries, when she was working as a stand-in.

Hurd said she sees intimacy coordinators as just the next evolution of conscientiousness on set.

"There didn’t used to be stunt coordinators or regulations around child actors or the way animals were used in filming," she said, “[Intimacy coordinators] should go into the same kind of category.”

And there are other parallels, like actors "requesting inclusion riders so that there's a person of color or LGBTQ or disabled [person] in every room,” Hurd added.

For now, actors who request coordinators are not guaranteed one. Blumenthal, who also founded Intimacy Professional Association, one of the bodies that accredits ICs, said there are about 25 accredited coordinators currently working in the United States.

White said the guild is not directly connecting ICs with filmmakers, just raising awareness about their work. Intimacy coordinators are also not currently union members, though some are advocating for SAG-AFTRA membership.

Still, White said, the new protocols have the power to gradually shift the culture on set.

"The time will come where this position becomes a standard role of any production involving intimate scenes,” he said.