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As Normal People draws to a close this week, Michael Doherty talks to Intimacy Coordinator, Ita O’Brien, about her work on the much talked about series
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When it comes to TV drama in 2020, no series has made a greater impact on the public consciousness than Normal People. Lead actors Daisy Edgar Jones and Paul Mescal have been feted for their performances in the 12-part adaptation of Sally Rooney’s acclaimed novel, while directors Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie McDonald are also being celebrated for their handling of sensitive material. But if there’s one person whom all of the above single out for special praise, that person is Ita O’Brien.
As an Intimacy Coordinator who works in theatre, film and TV, Ita’s role is to establish boundaries for actors and crew that ensures everybody involved in shooting an intimate scene feels comfortable, safe and protected. “It’s not about getting in the way”’ explains Ita, “but about creating a space and a structure that allows everybody to be listened to when it comes to agreement and consent. Actors can then take all the beauty of their characters into the intimate content and create the best scenes possible.”
“I was worried about using an Intimacy Coordinator initially,” Lenny Abrahamson told the RTÉ Guide recently, “thinking that it might get between me and the actors, but in fact we all found it quite liberating and empowering. I also had the certainty that the actors were comfortable with what we were doing.”
By way of confirmation, both Daisy and Paul speak very positively about the experience of shooting those well publicised (just ask Joe Duffy) intimate scenes on Normal People. Since Daisy and Paul are young (21 and 24 respectively) and relatively inexperienced, I wonder if they relied on Ita to identify potential pitfalls. “That’s absolutely true,” she says. “When you have people who haven’t experienced how intimate scenes are done, they don’t have a template. Actors who have experience of intimate scenes often already have a template of how to approach intimate scenes.” For example? “Well, I’ve had experienced actors say to me, Oh, I don’t want to rehearse that intimate scene, because I don’t want to make it a bigger thing than it needs to be.’ They are still in the mindset of how things were done in the past. They’re going, ‘Look, I don’t want to talk about it, I know how I’m going to do it, so I’ll just do it.’ Of course, you always respect people’s choices and I’ll always be there to support them. But I do feel in all of those situations where the option to choreograph hasn’t been taken up, we could have gotten there quicker and better with more detailed intimate content.”
For Ita O’Brien, the function of an Intimacy Coordinator isn’t just to be present on set when intimate scenes are being choreographed and filmed; it begins long before that. Ideally, she would like to be involved at the early stages of pre-production. While that hasn’t always been possible, it was certainly the case with Normal People. “Normal People was the ideal
“On Normal People, they really got it. They put everything in place that I was asking for and the results are as you see them”
scenario in that regard,” Ita explains. “Before the production had even started, they knew that they wanted to put best practice in place. I was contacted by the producers before rehearsals began. I was there on day one of rehearsals and met with Lenny, Paul and Daisy, where we shared the structure of the work. I was there for the read-through and was able to share with the crew how the intimacy guidelines worked in practice. There was an understanding among the crew of my role and everything was in place from day one, so it was ideal.”
As a pioneer in this area of film production, Ita has worked on highprofile projects including many successful theatrical productions and successful TV series, such as Gentleman Jack (BBC), Humans (Channel 4), Sex Education (Netflix) and Gangs of London (Sky). But Normal People has been particularly special. As someone whose mother is from Cookstown and whose father hails from Clonmel, Ita is well placed to appreciate that uniquely Irish approach to sex and relationships. “I think that’s true,” she says. “My mum is the eldest of ten and she came across to England to do her midwifery training when she was 24. The irony is, she has actually held on more staunchly to the Irish Catholic traditions than even my Aunt Ita, who is a nun! When I read the novel, I was in sobs of tears because it got into my gut. But there was also something joyous about the book in that there is no mention of religion or religious constraints. This production is something that was very close to my heart because of the whole Irish experience.”
Sometimes the trickiest aspect of adapting a particularly cherished book for the screen is that the characters are so beloved and so etched in people’s minds, that the adaptation is almost destined to disappoint. In the case of Normal People, both the critical and the audience response suggest that this isn’t the case. And Ita isn’t the least bit surprised. “I always felt it was going to do well,” she explains. “Everybody that had read Sally’s book was anxiously waiting for the series. During normal times it would have been successful, but in this COVID era, with us all sitting at home, it has reached an even wider audience. I know what you’re saying about cherished characters, but that’s why everybody involved in the production was so keen to honour the story, which, as I say, got into my gut. Sally likened writing the sex scenes to writing dialogue in the sense that every beat counts, and I got that from the intimate content. Lenny was so delighted to be back working in Dublin for the first time in seven years. While Daisy isn’t Irish, her mum is from Northern Ireland, so she got it. But it was never a case, as you see with some productions, where the book is one thing and them we’re going to take it here for the TV drama. The book was always the bible and everybody felt that we were all in this small bubble creating a thing of beauty.”
Having interviewed a number of actors over the years who described how situations were less than ideal on sets in the past when it came to consent and respect, I wonder why it has taken so long for the TV and film industry to embrace the concept of an intimacy coordinator?
“Well, I feel there are a couple of reasons for that,” says Ita. “One is that there wasn’t a professional structure within which actors could talk about intimate content and separate out who they were personally and what was needed professionally to serve the character and the story. The other side of it was that, if someone needed to perform a tango in a film, a TV series or a play, you would teach them how to do it and then choreograph the sequence. Ditto if there was a fight or swordplay. Before intimacy guidelines were introduced, there was a sense that everybody does sex and there isn’t a skill or technique needed. But it is a body dance that needs physical choreography and there’s also a risk here because someone’s private and intimate body is in play and that can lead to emotional and psychological issues. As you’ve experienced yourself, actors over the years have talked about a range of emotions from feeling awkward to feeling harassed to feeling downright abused. That can have a long-term effect.”
So was it the success of the #Metoo movement that really brought the issue to the fore? “Yes, I believe so,” says Ita. “The shift began when those beautiful, brave women stood up against Weinstein. An industry that had once turned a blind eye realised it could do no longer stand by while predatory behaviour was happening. The response to the #MeToo and #Timesup movements was to create a proper code of conduct.”
So are some directors still reluctant to fully embrace what an intimacy coordinator can bring to their production, or has the penny dropped? “It’s an ongoing thing and the penny is still dropping! On Normal People, they really got it and put everything in place that I was asking for and the results are as you see them. But we’re still teaching. When we first meet producers they’ll often say, ‘I’ve never worked with an intimacy co-ordinator before, how does it work?’ There are productions such as Sex Education and Normal People that take everything on board, and then there are productions where I think I’ve been listened to, and I haven’t been. And sometimes I’m told that the director doesn’t want to speak to me. With Normal People, I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful story and how it was supported by the intimacy coordination. The message is rippling out and it can’t be anything but positive. In the whole of the industry across the world, there’s a real understanding of what the role is about. It’s about supporting the writing, supporting the directing and supporting the actors to make the best work possible. They’re starting to get it now!”