6 hours ago
7
Jennifer Lawrence has become the latest star to express scepticism over the necessity of intimacy coordinators, saying she declined their services while working on new film Die My Love, because she felt “safe” with her co-star.
Intimacy coordinators were introduced as a result of the #MeToo movement to try to ensure the safety and comfort of actors when shooting scenes involving sex and nudity. Yet actors including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston and Sean Bean have pushed back against the profession, with some suggesting they interrupt their creativity.
Speaking to Las Culturistas podcast to promote the release of Die My Love, in which she plays a woman who becomes increasingly disturbed after the birth of her child, Lawrence said: “We did not have [an intimacy coordinator], or maybe we did but we didn’t really … I felt really safe with Rob.”
She continued: “He is not pervy and very in love with [partner] Suki [Waterhouse]. We mostly were just talking about our kids and relationships. There was never any weird, like, ‘Does he think I like him?’”
“If there was a little bit of that I would probably have an intimacy coordinator. A lot of male actors get offended if you don’t want to fuck them, and then the punishment starts. He was not like that.”
Earlier this week, industry website IMDb officially recognised intimacy coordinators, alongside 11 other professional credits including choreography, craft services, and puppetry, and announced that crew members would now be billed as such. They were previously grouped under the “additional crew” section.
Yet intimacy coordinators face continued press suggesting they need not be industry standard, with high-profile actors rejecting their involvement. Lawrence’s rationale echoes that of Aniston, who said she rejected the interventions of an intimacy coordinator when working with Jon Hamm on scenes for The Morning Show.
“Jon was such a gentleman, always – I mean every move, every cut, ‘You OK?’” she recalled. “It was also very choreographed. That’s the beauty of [director] Mimi [Leder] and our gorgeous editor, the music and lighting. So, you don’t prepare.”
Aniston continued, “They said, ‘Where someone asks you if you’re OK,’ and I’m like, ‘Please, this is awkward enough!’ We’re seasoned – we can figure this one out. And we had Mimi there.”
Despite its numerous scenes of sexual activity and frequent nudity, Anora – Sean Baker’s multiple Oscar-winner about the affair between a sex worker and a Russian oligarch’s son – proceeded to shoot without an intimacy coordinator.
Mikey Madison, the star of the film, said she and her co-star Mark Eydelshteyn “decided it would be best to just keep it small.
“My character is a sex worker, and I had seen Sean’s films and know his dedication to authenticity. I was ready for it. As an actress, I approached it as a job.”
Her comments met with a backlash from intimacy coordinators, as did those of Paltrow, who earlier this year said that working on the forthcoming Marty Supreme, which is her first leading role in a film since 2010, was her first experience of the relatively new profession, which she “did not know existed”.
Asked during the shooting of a scene with co-star Timothée Chalamet whether she was comfortable with a particular move, Paltrow responded: “I’m from the era where you get naked, you get in bed, the camera’s on.”
Paltrow added that she and Chalamet then told the coordinator: “‘I think we’re good. You can step a little bit back.’ I don’t know how it is for kids who are starting out, but … if someone is like, ‘OK, and then he’s going to put his hand here,’ I would feel, as an artist, very stifled by that.”
Speaking on a panel shortly after these comments were published, former Channel 4 drama head Caroline Hollick called them “irresponsible” and flagged that most of those speaking out against intimacy coordinators were sufficiently famous as to command their own power and protection on set.
“Every now and then an actor makes a comment over whether they like intimacy coordinators or not,” said Hollick. “Gwyneth Paltrow said she grew up in a time when [people in Hollywood] ‘took our kit off and got on with it’. As a powerful woman in Hollywood acting with a man much younger than her, well I’m sure [Chalamet] is chill but I thought it was quite an irresponsible thing to say.”
Michael Douglas, meanwhile, said he felt the primary burden of responsibility when shooting heterosexual sex scenes fell on the male actor, rather than a third party.
“In my experience, you take responsibility as the man to make sure the woman is comfortable, you talk it through,” he said. “You say, ‘OK, I’m gonna touch you here if that’s all right’. It’s very slow but looks like it’s happening organically, which is hopefully what good acting looks like.”
